Remove PDF annotations on your Mac

When you need this

A review PDF can accumulate comments, highlights, drawn shapes, and stamps that are no longer wanted in a clean reading copy. Distinguish review objects from the page’s actual artwork before processing. A highlight added by a reviewer and a colored rectangle printed by the author may look similar but be stored differently.

How to do it in DipperPDF

Download the DMG from GitHub Releases, open it, drag DipperPDF into Applications, and launch the app from there. The app’s README specifies macOS 14 or later. Downloading the app requires a connection, but the PDF operation works offline once the app is installed. You do not need an account, subscription, trial, or paid upgrade to use the tool.

1. Open the PDF in Remove Annotations.
2. Read the scope: supported review markup is removed across every page.
3. Click Remove Annotations and inspect the prepared PDF.
4. Use Save PDF… to save a separate copy and check the pages with the most markup.

What it does not do

Comments, highlights, text boxes, drawings, stamps, and other supported review annotation types are removed. Links and form fields are retained. Marks flattened into page content cannot be removed by this operation, and unfamiliar annotation types are preserved. The tool is not a way to erase all hidden information or rewrite page artwork.

A worked example

Imagine a reviewed agreement with yellow highlights, margin comments, and a stamp on its final page. Prepare a copy with Remove Annotations and compare the formerly marked pages with the source. Check that the expected review marks disappeared and that useful links still behave as intended. If a colored mark remains because it is flattened into the page, the tool cannot identify and remove it as a separate review object.

Check the result before sharing

Compare the clean copy with the review source on several representative pages. Check comments, highlights, drawn shapes, and stamps rather than assuming all marks use the same storage type. A remaining mark may be flattened page content or an annotation type the tool intentionally keeps. If you need to preserve particular reviewer notes, retain the annotated source as the record. The output is a separate clean-reading copy, and the operation does not decide which comments should be accepted as document revisions.

Preparing a result and saving it are separate steps. Use the prepared view to check the outcome before choosing a destination. Save under a descriptive name in a writable local folder, then reopen the saved output to check that you chose the intended result. DipperPDF saves a separate file and prevents overwriting an imported source. Keeping the original gives you a starting point if a selection or setting needs correction.

When not to use DipperPDF for this job

Use another workflow when you want to keep some comments while deleting only a chosen subset. This tool operates across the document. If the mark is embedded page content or a phrase needing redaction, annotation removal does not address that job. Preserve the review source if its comments are needed for the revision record.

If the document needs another operation

If another operation is needed, save this result and import that saved copy into the next tool. There is no automatic chain of tasks here. Make the order deliberate: changing the page count or sequence can change which pages a later range refers to. When an input is encrypted, use Unlock PDF first with the password and permissions required by the document, then work with the authorized unencrypted copy.

FAQ