How to Remove Images From a PDF on Windows, Mac, iPhone & Android

One expert caveat before you start: deleting an image and redacting it are not the same thing. Delete removes the picture you can see; if that image contains sensitive data — a screenshot of a customer's screen, a signature scan, an ID photo — you often want true redaction, which removes the underlying data at the binary level. This guide covers both, and a short section below explains exactly when to use which.

This is a companion piece to our full walkthrough on how to edit a PDF — start there if you also need to change text, links, or scanned pages.

Part 1. Which method should you use?

Pick the row that matches what you're actually trying to do. All methods run inside UPDF, so you don't switch tools between them.

Part 2. How to Remove an Image From a PDF on Windows and Mac

The desktop app gives you the fastest, most precise control — useful when a page has several images stacked close together. The steps are identical on Windows and Mac. Open the document in UPDF — if you don't have it yet, download UPDF for free and install it in under a minute.

Step 1. Click Open File on the main interface and choose your PDF.

Step 2. Click Edit on the top toolbar to enter editing mode.

Step 3. Click the image you want to remove.

Step 4. Right-click the image and choose Delete, or simply press the Delete key on your keyboard. The image is gone instantly.

Step 5. Save the file or save as other to keep the original untouched and export a clean copy.

Delete every image on a page in one action

If a page is packed with pictures — a property brochure, a photo-heavy catalog — deleting them one at a time is slow. UPDF's Filter lets you select all the images on the current page at once.

Step 1. In Edit mode, click the Filter icon in the top editing toolbar to open Filter Options.

Step 2. Turn off every toggle except Image, so only images are selectable. Text, links, paths, and shading are now locked and won't be caught in your selection.

Step 3. Press Ctrl + A (Windows) or ⌘ + A (Mac) to select every image on the page at once.

Step 4. Right-click and choose Delete, or press the Delete key. Every image on the page disappears while the text and layout stay exactly in place.

This is the fastest route for privacy clean-ups and template extraction, where you want the words but none of the pictures.

Download UPDF for free to try deleting an image on your own file — installation is free, and Pro features unlock when you need watermark-free export or advanced tools.

Part 3. How to Remove an Image From a PDF on iPhone and Android

UPDF's mobile apps are fully featured, not stripped-down viewers — image deletion works the same way it does on desktop, so you can clean up a file the moment it lands in your inbox. The steps are the same on iPhone, iPad, and Android; only the position of the Edit icon differs.

Step 1. Open the PDF in the UPDF app.

Step 2. Tap the Edit icon to enter editing mode.

Step 3. Tap the image you want to remove. A small bar appears with options to copy, delete, crop, replace, and more.

Step 4. Tap Delete, then save the file.

Because one UPDF license covers Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, you can start a cleanup on your laptop and finish it on your phone without re-buying anything.

Part 4. When and Why People Remove Images From a PDF

"Remove image from PDF" is rarely about tidiness. Most of the time it's a privacy or reuse problem in disguise. Here are the situations where stripping images out solves a real headache — and the exact terms people search when they hit them.

Privacy clean-up before sharing. A bug report full of screenshots, a résumé with a headshot, or a quote studded with product photos all carry visual information you may not want to forward. The Filter shortcut in Part 1 lets you strip every image off a page in one action, keeping the text intact while dropping the visual exposure.

E-reader and focused-study mode. Colored charts and decorative figures make a document lag on a Kindle or e-ink tablet and pull the eye during deep revision. Strip the images and you get a light, text-only file that scrolls smoothly and is easier to read for long stretches.

Template extraction and catalog updates. Remove the pictures from a well-designed poster or brochure and you're left with a clean layout skeleton — text frames and grid — you can reuse. Product catalogs work the same way: pull the old product shots, keep the copy and layout, drop in the new images.

Legal and contract review. Reviewers often want just the clause text. Removing company logos, header/footer graphics, and scanned signature images keeps attention on the wording rather than the decoration.

Translation and localization prep. Feeding a PDF full of icons and diagrams into a CAT tool invites garbled output. Removing the images first gives translators clean text to work with, and the visuals can be re-inserted afterward.

Part 5. Delete vs. Cover vs. Redact — Which One You Actually Need

This is the distinction most articles skip, and getting it wrong is a genuine privacy risk. If the image you're removing contains sensitive information, "delete" may not be enough.

• Delete image → removes the picture as an object. Fast and clean for logos, duplicates, or images that no longer fit. The right choice when the picture itself isn't sensitive.
• Cover / black-out → drops a filled shape or box on top of the image. It looks hidden, but the original image data still sits underneath and can be recovered. Never use this for anything confidential.
• Redaction → permanently removes the underlying content, not just the visible mark. This is the correct method for ID scans, signature images, or screenshots of private data.

A one-line way to remember it: delete takes the picture off the page; cover just hides it; redaction removes the data itself. Think of a cover box as a sticker slapped over a photo — peel it off and the photo is still there — while redaction is shredding the photo before it ever reaches the recipient.

The technical reason matters: true redaction operates at the binary level — the distinction between "clearing" a visible mark and "purging" the underlying data that NIST SP 800-88 draws for media sanitization. Improperly hidden personal data can also be a reportable exposure under privacy regulations like GDPR Article 17. If your image holds regulated data, use UPDF's Redaction tool rather than a plain delete.

If you handle contracts, medical forms, or IDs, download UPDF for free and try redaction on a copy first, so you can confirm the data is truly gone before you share.

Part 6. Edge Cases: When the Image Won't Delete

The standard method covers almost every file. These are the exceptions and how to handle them.

• "I click the image but nothing selects." The graphic is likely a background or a page-level element, not an inline image. Use UPDF's Remove Background from PDF approach instead of Edit mode.
• "The image is part of a scan." In a scanned PDF, the whole page is one image, so there's no separate picture to delete. Run OCR first to separate text from graphics, or crop the region you want gone.
• "I deleted it, but it still prints." You almost certainly saved over a cached copy or exported before saving. Re-open the saved file and confirm the image is gone before printing.
• "The image looks blurry or broken and won't remove cleanly." A corrupted image object can resist selection; try right-click → Delete Image, and if it persists, delete and re-insert the page.

Part 7. FAQs

Conclusion

Removing an image from a PDF takes four steps in UPDF — open, Edit, click, Delete — and works identically on Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android, so you can clean up a file wherever you are. When the picture holds sensitive information, reach for UPDF's Redact tool instead of a plain delete. For the full picture on changing text, links, and scanned pages, see our guide on how to edit a PDF.

Download UPDF for free to try removing an image on your own file — installation is free, and Pro features are available when you need watermark-free export or advanced tools.