Remove annotations from a PDF

Removing annotations from a PDF produces a copy free of the comments, notes, highlights and review marks added in a PDF reader. It is the step to plan before sending the final version of a reviewed contract, publishing a document annotated internally or archiving a clean version. The operation removes these elements from the file structure without turning pages into images, directly in your browser.

In a PDF, an annotation is an object placed on the page and separate from its content: a pop-up note, a highlight, a comment, a stamp, but also a clickable link or a form field. When saving, the tool removes each page’s list of annotations, without touching text or images.

An important consequence: internal and external links are no longer clickable and interactive form fields disappear from the page. If you need to keep a form, use Flatten PDF instead, which freezes the values entered.

Marks drawn directly into the page content are not annotations and stay visible: for example a document printed and scanned with handwritten comments, or highlights applied by Bethemesh’s Annotate and highlight a PDF tool, which burns them into the page.