5 Ways to Delete Text from PDF, Including Scanned PDF

We can relate to this case, when you check a PDF file and find some texts in the PDF private or unwanted, and then you decide to delete those texts from the PDF pages. You think it is easy, until you realize that you cannot even find an efficient tool at hand to get this done.

Here, we will show you 5 efficient and quick ways to remove texts from PDF, working across macOS, Windows, including both selectable text and unrecognized texts from a scanned PDF. Though the free option is not the most recommended, you can give it a go.

• How to Delete Both Selectable and Scanned Text from PDF
• Erase Text in PDF with Mac Preview App
• How to Remove Unwanted Text from PDF Online Free
• Would Like to Delete Text in PDF without Acrobat But Easily?

How to Delete Both Selectable and Scanned Text from PDF

The texts in your PDF might be selectable and can be easily deleted, or unselectable in a scanned PDF and cannot be removed at all. Using a PDF editor is an efficient way to delete all types of PDF texts without errors and not harming the original PDF quality. There are several PDF editors you can use, some for macOS, some for Windows, but Adobe Acrobat is the best for both Mac and Windows users.

Last year, I subscribed the yearly plan of Adobe Acrobat DC and got a lot of benefits, I’ve never had such a great experience in productivity improvements before. Adobe Acrobat offers a perfect all-in-one solution, especially for those heavy-duty PDF users who want to fill and sign, annotate, comment, edit text/image/url, create, convert, redact, scan, compare PDFs.

Regarding its price, the only reason once made me hesitate about a subscription, turns out to be much better than you might think. Taking a look at the prices of other acrobat-like PDF editors, the gap is not that wide, none of PDF editors is cheap. In addition, Adobe Acrobat has a monthly subscription too, you can subscribe the service only when you have PDFs to work with and cancel at anytime within the monthly plan. When taking features, performance and user experience into considerations, no one can outperform Adobe Acrobat, this makes it worth of its every cent.

Why Adobe Acrobat?

• Delete text and add text to PDF easily
• Delete text from a scanned PDF file too
• Add text, replace text, change text properties
• Edit texts, images, urls, anything in the PDF file
• Create and convert PDF
• Scan and OCR PDF
• Markup (circle, redline), annotate, comment, share, protect PDFs
• Organize PDF pages
• Redact PDF
• Compress PDF
• Fill and sign
• Compare PDF files

Here is how to remove selectable text from PDF in Adobe Acrobat:

1. Grab a free copy of Adobe Acrobat, install it.
2. Open PDF with Adobe Acrobat.
3. Choose Edit PDF tools, your PDF will be ready for editing.
4. Choose the texts that you want to delete, add new texts and format with the tools in the right pane.
5. Then go to File>Save.

Here is how to delete text from scanned PDF in Adobe Acrobat:

1. Open PDF with Adobe Acrobat.
2. Head to Scan & OCR>Recognize Text>In This File, choose file language and edit the recognition options, hit Recognize Text.
3. Now the texts in this scanned PDF becomes selectable, head to Edit PDF tool, select the texts and delete from the scanned PDF.
4. Hit Save.

Erase Text in PDF with Mac Preview App

Mac users have it easy to remove text from PDF, thanks to Preview. However, Preview is not a PDF editor, you cannot delete the texts directly, you need to erase the texts first and then add new texts, therefore it would not keep the text property of newly entered texts the same as the original ones, therefore it will be easy to discern which texts are added later, this makes your PDF not that “good looking”.

Here is how to erase text from PDF with Preview on Mac.

1. Open PDF with Preview app.
2. Click on Show Markup Tool, choose a shape, for example the square shape.
3. Make the border color as None.
4. Make the fill color as White.
5. Drag and move the white shape over to the texts that you want to erase.
6. Click the Text tool to add new if necessary.
7. Head to File>Save.

How to Remove Unwanted Text from PDF Online Free

Another easy way to remove unwanted texts from PDF is using web-based service. You won’t be required to download any PDF software and it works on all operating systems. But most of online PDF text removers don’t support deleting text from a scanned PDF for free, a payment for OCR feature is needed.

1.Sejda

This green intuitive PDF editor has served for many users online, it is the home to plentiful of PDF tools: editor, merger, splitter, organizer, creator, converter, compressor, locker, form filler and so on. It allows users to remove selectable texts from PDF with ease, but it has a pricing to remove texts from scanned PDF using the OCR tool. In addition, the free service is only available when pages is less than 200, or smaller than 50MB, and only 3 free tasks per hour.

Here is how to remove text from PDF online free

1. Navigate to sejda.com/pdf-editor. Upload the PDF file.
2. Head to Text, select the texts, then hit the Trash bin icon to delete the texts.
3. Hit Apply.
4. Download the file to your machine.

2. smallpdf

Smallpdf is a free online service that edits PDF files online. Among many other features, it supports erasing unwanted texts from PDF. Just drop your PDF to the app and erase the unwanted texts easily.

Here is how to remove text from PDF online free

1. Navigate to smallpdf.com/edit-pdf.
2. Drag and drop PDF to upload online.
3. Choose Rectangle shape and select the texts that you want to delete.
4. Then choose border and fill color as White to white out the texts.
5. Then click on the Blue Download button to save the PDF with texts removed.

Would Like to Delete Text in PDF without Acrobat But Easily?

A PDF editor is a must-have to handle texts in PDF documents, but Adobe Acrobat is not fitting everyone’s needs. You may be just looking for a simpler one.

PDFChef is the top program of quick, efficient and inexpensive PDF solutions. It helps you to view, edit PDF text/image, create, convert, sign, merge, organize, search and print PDF with ease.

Here is how to remove selectable text from PDF without Adobe Acrobat

1. Get a free copy of PDFChef, install it.
2. Drag and drop PDF to the app.
3. Click on Edit>Edit Text, select the texts and press Delete key to remove the texts.
4. Head to File>Save. Done.

It is the best time to install Adobe Acrobat now

Adobe Acrobat is certainly the market leader in PDF solutions, it is uniquely rich in features, highly compatibility across devices and platforms, outstandingly fluid in performance, and this is why I finally became a Adobe Acrobat subscriber, after 2 years of installing and uninstalling other 3rd party PDF editors, Adobe Acrobat is the only one that solves all my PDF tasks in one central location, yes, it does all. Maybe, it is the best time for you to install Adobe Acrobat now.