How to Remove Highlights from a PDF on Mac (Free, Without Acrobat)
Strip highlights, underlining, and markup from a PDF on Mac in Safari or Chrome — no Acrobat, no software. Get a clean unmarked document.
After reviewing a PDF in Preview or Adobe Reader on Mac, removing your highlights before sharing is good practice for clean document delivery. FixMyPDF's highlight remover strips all markup in Safari or Chrome — no Acrobat subscription.
Removing Highlights in Preview (Built-In Method)
Open the annotated PDF in Preview on Mac. Press ⌘4 to open the Annotations Inspector (or View → Annotations Inspector). Select all annotations (⌘A) in the inspector → press Delete. This removes all annotations. Press ⌘S to save. Works reliably for Preview-created annotations.
Why Preview's Method Has Limitations
Preview's annotation remover only works for annotations added by Preview itself. Annotations added by Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat Pro, or other PDF tools are stored differently and may not appear in Preview's Annotations Inspector — meaning they can't be deleted this way.
Browser-Based Removal for All Annotation Types
Go to fixmypdf.in/tools/remove-pdf-highlights in Safari or Chrome on Mac. Upload the annotated PDF. Click "Remove Highlights". The tool processes all standard annotation types regardless of which software created them and downloads a clean PDF.
Before Submitting Documents on Mac
Academic submissions (thesis drafts, research papers), legal filings, and business contract finals — all should be free of review annotations before formal submission. Use this tool as a final step before sending the official version.
Keeping Your Review Copy
Before removing highlights, duplicate the file in Finder (right-click → Duplicate or ⌘D). Keep the annotated version as your working copy. Strip annotations from the duplicate for the clean shared version. This ensures you don't lose your review work.
Privacy on Mac
Your PDF — including any annotation content that might reference confidential review notes — is processed locally in your Mac's browser. No annotation text or document content reaches any server.
After Removing Highlights on Mac
The clean PDF is ready to share or submit. Compress it on Mac if it's large, or add a password before sending sensitive documents.
Try Remove Highlights Now — Free
Browser-based, private, and instant. No account or software required.
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