Remove highlights from PDF free
Clear every highlight, comment, sticky note and drawing in one go — or tick exactly which kinds to remove. Nothing is uploaded.
- Files never leave your browser
- No sign-up needed
- Free to use
How to remove highlights from a PDF
To remove highlights from a PDF, choose the file above: the tool lists every kind of annotation it found with a count — highlights, comments, drawings, stamps and more — with highlights pre-ticked. Click Remove selected and all of them are deleted at once, while the page text and images stay untouched. It runs in your browser, free with no daily limit.
- 1
Choose your PDF
Drop the file into the box above. It is read in your browser and never uploaded.
- 2
Tick what to remove
The scan groups what it found — highlights, comments, drawings, stamps, links, attachments, form fields — with a count for each. Highlights are ticked by default.
- 3
Remove and download
Click Remove selected. A copy ending in “-cleaned.pdf” downloads with only the ticked groups gone.
Why people remove highlights and comments from PDFs
Reuse study notes or textbooks
Get a clean copy of a reading you marked up, to share with a classmate or start annotating again.
Send a clean contract
Strip internal review comments and sticky notes before the document goes to the other side.
Clear reviewer markup
Remove strikethroughs, underlines, shapes and stamps left during an editing round once the changes are made.
Print without the colour
Highlights and comment icons often print along with the page. Remove them for a clean printout.
Remove all highlights from a PDF at once
In most PDF readers, highlights and comments are annotations: separate objects layered on top of the page. Mac Preview and Acrobat let you delete them, but one at a time — fine for three highlights, painful for three hundred. DoceasePDF lists every annotation in the file by type and removes whole groups in a single click.
Only the annotations you tick are deleted. The page's own text, images and layout are not touched, so the document underneath is exactly as it was before anyone marked it up. Removing a highlight or comment also removes the pop-up note attached to it, so no orphaned notes are left behind.
Everything runs in your browser with pdf-lib. The file is never uploaded, there is no sign-up, and the tool is free with no daily limit and no watermark.
Continue your PDF workflow: Flatten PDF — Burn annotations into the page instead of deleting them., White Out PDF — Cover highlights that are part of the page. or Annotate PDF — Add fresh highlights and notes to the clean copy.
How to remove comments and sticky notes from a PDF
To remove comments from a PDF, open it above and tick “Comments & sticky notes”. That group covers sticky-note comments, text boxes typed onto the page, insertion carets and their pop-up windows — all removed together.
Untick “Highlights, underlines & strikethroughs” if you want to keep the highlights and only clear the comments. Each group is independent, so you can remove one kind of markup and keep the rest.
Remove annotations from a PDF: what each group covers
Highlights, underlines & strikethroughs covers all four text-markup types, including squiggly underlines. Drawings & shapes covers freehand ink, rectangles, circles, lines, polygons and polylines. The scan also finds stamps, links, file attachments, watermark annotations, and form fields including signature fields.
Only groups that actually exist in your file are shown, each with a count, so you can see what's there before anything changes. Links are never pre-ticked, because most people want to keep them.
Why some highlights can't be removed
A highlight can only be deleted when it is still an annotation. If the PDF was flattened, scanned or printed after highlighting, the colour became part of the page itself — there's no separate object left to remove.
When the scan finds no removable annotations, it says so instead of returning an unchanged file. You can still hide burned-in marks by covering them in White out PDF.
DoceasePDF vs. upload-based PDF tools
| DoceasePDF | Upload-based tools | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your file is processed | On your device, in your browser | Uploaded to their servers |
| Account required | No — open a file and start | Often required after 1–2 uses |
| Price | Free — 3 documents a day | Credits, trials or subscriptions |
| Waiting for uploads | None — files open instantly | Upload + queue + download again |
| Tools per session | Every tool on one document | One tool, then re-upload |
Why people switch to DoceasePDF
Private by design
Editing happens in your browser with WebAssembly. Your file is never uploaded, so nobody — including us — can see it.
Genuinely free
3 documents a day with every tool included — no sign-up, no page limits, no watermarks. Pro lifts the daily cap.
Works everywhere
Any modern browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone or Android. Nothing to download or install.
One editor, every tool
Edit, sign, organize and compress in a single session — no re-uploading between tools like on other sites.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove all highlights from a PDF at once?
Choose the PDF in the tool above. Highlights are ticked by default, so click Remove selected and every highlight, underline and strikethrough in the file is removed in one go.
Can I remove a single highlight from a PDF?
This tool removes highlights by group, not one by one. To delete just one highlight, select it in Mac Preview or Acrobat and press Delete; use this tool when you want all of them gone.
How do I remove comments from a PDF but keep the highlights?
Tick “Comments & sticky notes” and untick “Highlights, underlines & strikethroughs”, then click Remove selected. Only the comments and their pop-up notes are deleted.
Will removing highlights delete any of the text?
No. Highlights sit on top of the page as separate objects. Removing them leaves the page's text, images and layout exactly as they were.
Why can't the tool find the highlights I can see?
They have been burned into the page — usually because the PDF was flattened, scanned or printed after highlighting — so they're no longer annotations. Cover them with White out PDF instead.
Can I remove form fields or signature fields from a PDF?
Yes. If the file has them, the scan shows a “Form fields & signature fields” group. Ticking it deletes the fields and the interactive form, leaving the page underneath.
Is my PDF uploaded when I remove annotations?
No. The scan and the removal both run in your browser, and the cleaned file is saved straight to your device.