Remove Highlight From PDF: Unhighlighting Techniques For Windows & Mac

Highlighting important details in a PDF file is the most common technique to review critical concepts. However, this technique may not be helpful in every scenario and situation. For example, if you want to print a final document or like to share the PDF file for professional purposes, you don't need highlighted text. For such situations, it's essential to remove all highlights from PDF before making a final draft. Learn the easiest way to remove highlights from PDF through this well-composed article.

Part 1: How to Remove Highlights from PDF on Windows

Are you trying to remove all highlights from PDF on Windows? In this section, we will address a famous PDF tool that will be compatible with Windows users.

UPDF has 4 versions as a complete and advanced PDF tool specially designed for Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android separately. This tool offers an exceptional experience for the reader to view and highlight PDF through various features. Through their platform, you can make your notes regarding specific topics by highlighting the important definitions.

Even though highlighted content stands out and helps us in revising the important text, however, to share the final version of the PDF, you should unhighlight the content. UPDF gives you the option to edit PDF including removing the highlight in PDF anytime you prefer. To successfully unhighlight the text in a PDF file, get the instructions below:

Step 1: Proceed to the Comment Tool

Download UPDF by clicking the download button below. Initiate the tool UPDF on your computer and open its interface. To import the PDF file, click on the "Open File" option and choose the file you want to upload.

Windows • macOS • iOS • Android 100% secure

After uploading the PDF file to the tool, navigate to the "Comment" option that you can find on the left menu bar. This option will provide you with several annotation features that you can utilize.

Step 2: Select Text to Unhighlight

After clicking on the "Comment" icon tool, select the highlighted text and right click then tap on the "Clear" option in the toolbox to unhighlight it. By using this way, you can remove highlights from PDFs.


Part 2: How to Remove Highlight from PDF on Mac

UPDF comes with the option of displaying all comments made across a PDF, which provides you with better navigation across the annotated content. If you seek to unhighlight content from a PDF document on Mac, you will have to follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Access the Comment List

Launch your UPDF tool on the Mac after downloading and installing it. As it opens, select the "Open File" button to select the file that is to be edited.

Windows • macOS • iOS • Android 100% secure

As the document is already highlighted, find the "Comments" button on the bottom-right corner of the screen. This opens up the comment list on the right panel, displaying all annotations performed across the PDF.

Step 2: Remove the Highlight from the PDF

Find the comment that displays the highlighted content and select the "Three-Dotted" icon on the top-right of the comment. Select "Delete" from the options to remove the highlight from the PDF.

You can also select the highlighted text and right-click then tap on "Clear" from the options to remove the highlight from the PDF.

Not only on Windows and Mac but UPDF also support removing highlight from PDFs on mobile. You can have one license UPDF and then use it on four devices. UPDF is currently running a limited-time promotion. Take advantage of this opportunity and don't miss out on the savings!


Part 3: Why Is It Important to Remove Highlights from PDF?

People always look forward to adding highlights to their PDF to specify something specific or important across a file. However, it does not look good if a document is professionally submitted across a platform until the personnel requires the file to be highlighted. When submitting a final document to the court, you would not prefer it to be highlighted and annotated in different places as it would make the reading experience difficult for other readers.

In other cases, while submitting an educative document to your supervisor or professor, you would not like to submit a highlighted document that has no particular use for them. Thus, it is always best to remove the highlights from a PDF document.

While sending files that are to be checked for a particular purpose, such as house loaning, the files should be clean and clear, with the information appropriately written. Any highlighted content would make it difficult to assess the document properly, and it might lead to some problems. Thus, removing the highlights from a PDF document is considered best when you send it to another user.

Part 4: FAQs About Removing Highlights from PDF

1. How Do I Remove All Highlights in PDF with Preview?

  • Launch Apple's Preview application and open the PDF file containing the highlight that needs to be removed. 
  • Click on the highlighted area to select it.
  • If there aren't any active selections, navigate to the "View > Show" Markup Toolbar so that the toolbar becomes visible.
  • Then press "Command + Delete" to delete the selected annotation and permanently remove the highlight.

2. How Do I Redact All Highlighted Text in PDF?

You can easily redact highlighted text in PDF with UPDF:

  • Download and launch UPDF, and open the PDF file that you want to redact.
  • Select "Edit PDF" from the left sidebar.
  • Locate the text that you want to redact.
  • Then, you can edit the text as you want, including editing text, changing font/font color/font size, etc.

3. Can You Remove Highlights from a PDF Online?

Some online tools are available in the market for removing the highlights from a PDF document. However, the major issue with most of them is the file size limit that restricts users from easily managing large documents. It is safer and more stable for you to use a desktop solution like UPDF, which not only provides a highlight function but also some advanced features like OCR to satisfy all PDF-related problems.

4. How Can You Unhighlight All Pages of a PDF?

With UPDF, you have to access the list of comments to remove the highlights from a PDF document. After accessing the list of comments, you can select all the comments using the "Command" key if you are using a MacBook. Afterward, press the "Delete" button from your keyboard to delete all the comments simultaneously. (For now, only Mac OS supports this function.)

Conclusion

Highlighting PDF files can offer great assistance in terms of revising complicated concepts and definitions. This technique is effective, but you cannot apply it in situations where you want to submit a final document or want to print a document. Take instructions from this article on how to remove highlights in PDF through reliable tools. For Windows and Mac users, trust and download UPDF as an all-in-one tool to read and edit PDF files.

Windows • macOS • iOS • Android 100% secure