3 Easy Ways to Remove Highlight in PDF

When creating a PDF, you might use annotation tools to mark up the document. Before saving the final version, It’s better remove highlights, strikethrough and underline in PDF to keep the document looking professional.

If you need to remove highlights from individual words or entire paragraphs in a PDF, this guide will show you how to do it using PDFgear and Adobe Acrobat.

Remove All Highlights in PDF at Once for Free

PDFgear is a free PDF editor that lets you easily add or delete highlights in PDF files. It also includes a batch delete feature, so you can remove multiple annotations at once.

Besides highlighting, PDFgear lets you add other annotations like strikethrough, text comment and underline to PDF to emphasize important points in a document.

Download and install PDFgear on your device to experience its advanced features.

Step 1: Launch PDFgear on your Mac or PC. Click “Open File” to select the PDF you want to edit.

Step 2: Locate the ‘Comment‘ button in the top-left corner. This will open the left panel, displaying all annotations, such as highlights, underlines, and strikethrough.

Step 3: To delete a highlight annotation, locate it and click the trash icon next to it.

Step 4: If you want to delete multiple highlights at once, click the ‘Batch Delete’ button, then select all the highlights you want to remove.

How to Unhighlight in PDF Online for Free

To remove highlights from a PDF without installing software, PDFgear’s online platform provides a quick solution.

No email registration is required, and with no limitations, you can remove highlights from PDF text in just three easy steps.

Step 1: Open your web browser and visit the PDFgear online PDF editor. Click “Select PDF files” to open the PDF you want to edit.

Once the PDF is opened, you’ll be directed to the PDF editor page.

Step 2:  Locate the “Comment Panel” button under the “Add or Edit Annotations” tab in the top-right corner.

This will open the comments menu on the right, showing all annotations in the PDF.

Step 3: Find the comment you want to remove, click the three-dot icon in the top-right corner, and select ‘Delete’ from the drop-down menu to remove the highlight, strikethrough or underline from the PDF.

Alternatively, click directly on the highlighted area and choose “Delete” to remove it.

Step 4: After making the changes, click the “Download” button to save the updated PDF to your computer or device.

How to Remove Highlight from PDF in Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat provides an easy way to edit PDF annotations, including removing highlights or underlines for a clean, professional look. However, note that a paid subscription is required for full access to all editing features.

Follow these simple steps to remove highlights in Adobe Acrobat:

Step 1. Start by launching Adobe Acrobat and uploading the file with highlights.

Step 2. Select the highlighted text area you want to delete, and it will be highlighted with a blue outline.

Step 3.  A toolbox with three icons will pop up. Select the third one (the trash symbol) to delete the highlights. You can also follow the same steps to remove underline and strikethrough in PDF.

Step 4. Finally, save and download your highlight-free document.

FAQs

How to remove highlighted text in PDF using Preview on Mac?

Here is how to remove highlights from a PDF on Mac using Preview:

Step 1: Right-click your PDF file, choose “Open With,” and select “Preview.”

Step 2: In the top menu, click “View” and choose “Highlights and Notes” to see all highlights and annotations.

Step 3: Click on the highlight you want to delete, then press “Delete” on your keyboard or right-click and choose “Remove Highlight.”

How to remove underline in PDF for free?

Step 1: Download PDFgear on your device and launch it. Click “Open File” to select the PDF with the underline you want to remove.

Step 2: Click the ‘Comment’ button located in the top-left corner. This will open a panel showing all annotations like underlines and strikethroghs.

Step 3: Locate the underline annotation in the left panel and click the trash icon next to it.

Step 4: To delete multiple underlines at once, click ‘Batch Delete‘, select the underlines, and confirm.

How to remove a strikethrough in PDF?

Use PDFgear PDF editor to open the PDF, hover the cursor over the strikethrough area, select the desired text, and press ‘Delete’ on your keyboard.

How to remove all comments and highlight in a PDF?

PDFgear offers a convenient batch delete feature for removing multiple highlights or comments at once. Here’s how to use it:

Step 1: Open PDFgear on your Mac or PC. Click “Open File” and choose the PDF you want to edit.

Step 2: Select the “Comment” button in the top-left corner to open the left panel, which shows all comments and highlights in the document.

Step 3: Click the “Batch Delete” button, then select all items you want to remove to delete multiple highlights or comments at once.