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Remove PDF annotations

Select which types of annotation to remove (comments, links, form fields). The cleaned PDF is downloaded locally, your file never leaves your device.

How Remove PDF annotations works

PDF Remove Annotations strips the annotation layer from a PDF using pdf-lib running in your browser: comments, sticky notes, highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, ink drawings, shape annotations, embedded links and, optionally, interactive form fields. The result is a flat version of the document that shows only the original page content, with no markup that could reveal reviewer identities or internal feedback.

Know the limits before you use it: the tool removes PDF annotation and widget objects from the file structure. It does not touch the underlying page content stream. If a highlight colour was rendered into the page during a previous export or print-to-PDF operation, it is part of the page image and will remain. To remove hidden document metadata such as author name or edit history, use the Office metadata or EXIF tools instead.

Written by Bastien Sulyan

How to use Remove PDF annotations, step by step

  1. Drop a PDF onto the upload area.
  2. Choose whether to also remove interactive form fields (AcroForm widgets), or keep them.
  3. Click 'Remove annotations' and wait for pdf-lib to process the document in your browser.
  4. Download the cleaned PDF to your device.

Common use cases

  • Legal document sharing: remove reviewer comments and sticky notes from a contract before sending the final version to an external party.
  • Academic submission: strip highlighting and margin annotations from a PDF draft before submitting to a journal or conference.
  • Client delivery: clean up internal markup from a design PDF before handing it to a client.
  • Accessible distribution: remove form widgets from a filled form to produce a flat, read-only version for archiving or printing.

Frequently asked questions

Which annotation types does pdf-lib remove from the PDF?

pdf-lib removes all objects in the PDF's annotation array: text annotations (sticky notes), text markup (highlights, underlines, strikethroughs), ink annotations, square and circle shape annotations, embedded link annotations, and, when selected, AcroForm field widgets. Stamps and other named subtypes are also cleared as part of the annotation layer.

A highlight was baked into a scanned PDF. Will this tool remove it?

No. The tool removes PDF annotation objects from the file's data structure. If the highlight was physically drawn on paper before scanning, or was rasterized into the page image during a print-to-PDF step, it is part of the image data and cannot be removed without editing the image itself.

Does removing annotations also strip the author name or revision history?

No. The annotation layer is separate from document properties such as author name, creator application, last-modified-by and revision count. To remove those, use the Office metadata remover or EXIF reader tools. Run both tools in sequence if you need to clean both the annotation layer and the document properties.

Does pdf-lib upload my PDF to a server during processing?

No. pdf-lib is a pure JavaScript library that runs entirely in your browser tab. Your PDF is read into local memory, the annotation objects are removed from the parsed document structure, and the resulting file is written back and offered as a download. Nothing is transmitted to Sunasty's servers or any third party. You can confirm this by opening DevTools and checking the Network tab while the tool runs.

Will removing form fields erase the values I filled in?

Yes. When you enable the option to remove form fields, the AcroForm widget objects are deleted from the document. Any values previously entered in those fields are lost. If you want to preserve the filled values as visible text while making the form non-interactive, a PDF flatten tool is the right choice.

Can this tool handle password-protected PDFs?

No. Password-protected PDFs are encrypted and cannot be parsed by pdf-lib without the correct decryption key. Remove the password first using the PDF unlock tool, then strip the annotations.

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