BASALT · JOURNAL
How to remove comments and annotations from a PDF
PDF comments are separate objects attached to pages. A document may look clean because the comments panel is closed while still carrying reviewer names, timestamps, quoted text, replies, and attached files.
Inventory annotation types
Look for sticky notes, highlights, underlines, strikeouts, drawing marks, stamps, text boxes, popups, replies, and file-attachment annotations. Some have a visible appearance; others show only an icon or nothing until selected.
Inspect annotation contents, title or author fields, subject, creation and modification dates, reply relationships, and embedded files. A highlight can store the selected confidential sentence even after the visible highlight is removed.
Decide whether to remove or flatten
If the comment is not part of the release, delete the annotation object and its data. Flattening its appearance may paint a stamp or text box onto the page while preserving or discarding metadata depending on the tool. Never use flattening as a substitute for redacting confidential page content underneath.
If comments are intentional evidence, produce them under the same review rules as any other content rather than stripping them automatically.
Verify structurally
Use a PDF-aware inspector to enumerate annotations after export. The count should match the release instruction, and no orphaned popup or reply objects should remain. Search extracted annotation strings and check for file attachments separately.
Also inspect document-level metadata and XMP; removing annotations does not remove the application's author name from those fields.
Frequently asked questions
Can comments exist when I cannot see any icons?
Yes. Appearance settings, hidden popups, replies, or unsupported annotation types can make them unobtrusive while their data remains.
Is accepting comments the same as deleting them?
Not necessarily. Behavior varies by application. Inspect the exported PDF's annotation objects directly.
Can a comment contain an attached file?
Yes. File-attachment annotations can embed a separate file inside a page and require explicit inventory and removal.
Doing it in Basalt
Basalt's inspector reports annotations without quoting their sensitive contents, and sanitization removes annotations and embedded files from the release copy. The verifier confirms they are absent before saving. Download Basalt.
Redaction that proves itself
Basalt destroys the content you mark, then re-opens the file it wrote and proves the content is gone before it saves anything. Your documents never leave your Mac.