Strip comments and markup from a PDF before sharing
Review comments, highlights, and link annotations travel with the file. Strip every annotation before the PDF leaves your hands.
Tools used in this guide
The job
Annotations are separate objects layered on the page — deleting them leaves the text and images untouched but removes comments, highlights, stamps, links, and form widgets.
One pass, all annotations
Choose the PDF and run. The tool deletes each page's annotation array and the document's form dictionary, then reports what was removed. Download the clean copy — the original is never modified.
Worked example
A reviewed contract with 14 comments, 6 highlights, and a signature-field widget: after stripping, the page content is identical but the annotation list is empty — and form fields no longer exist as fields. If you need the filled values visible, flatten instead, then strip.
Scope
PDFs up to 25 MiB and 200 pages. Encrypted and digitally signed files are refused — removing annotations would invalidate a signature anyway. Page content and metadata are untouched; use the metadata tool if you also want the properties scrubbed.