To remove hyperlinks from a PDF, upload the file to an online editor, Microsoft Word, or Mac Preview, then strip out the links and save the updated document.
A single stray link in a business proposal or academic paper can pull a reader straight out of your document and onto a random web page. Hyperlinks are useful when you want them, but when you don't, they clutter formatting, distract from the message, and make your PDF look unfinished.
This article walks you through practical ways to remove hyperlinks from a PDF: using an online editor like pdf.net, Mac Preview, Microsoft Word, and the flatten/print method. You'll also discover best practices for keeping your document clean and error-free after the links are gone.
Key Takeaways
- You can remove hyperlinks from a PDF using an online editor like pdf.net, Microsoft Word, Mac Preview, or by printing the file as an image.
- Word can clear every hyperlink in a document at once with Ctrl + A followed by Ctrl + Shift + F9.
- Printing a PDF removes clickable links by default, but the blue, underlined styling stays visible even though the link no longer works.
- Always double-check your document after removal; some methods only disable a link's click function without removing the visual formatting.
How to Remove Hyperlinks From a PDF Online
To remove hyperlinks from a PDF online, you need an online PDF editor like pdf.net. Using our tool is straightforward; simply upload the document to our platform, remove the hyperlinks, and download the updated file.
Let’s break down the process to understand it better:
- Go to pdf.net and select Edit Text from the main menu to access our PDF editor.
- Then, drag and drop your PDF document to the box or upload it manually by clicking the Choose file button and selecting it from your storage.
- After the upload, a new window will appear, showing your document. Press the Text button in the toolbar located at the top of the page to enable editing.
- Select the hyperlink you want to remove from PDF, right click on it, and select Copy from the menu. Once you’ve copied the hyperlink text, delete it.
- In the empty text field, right-click to open the menu, and select Paste as plain text.
- After that, the text will appear without the hyperlink.
- Once you remove the links, you can download the new version of the document by clicking on the Download button in the upper right corner.
The downside is that you can’t remove hyperlinks in a batch. You need to remove them one by one. However, you get a full suite of different editing and AI options like Chat PDF.
How to Remove Hyperlinks From PDF Using Word
To remove hyperlinks from a PDF using Word, you need to open your document using this program, find and delete links, and save the document as a PDF file.
Before anything else, you must ensure that your Word version can open PDF documents. If your document is of good quality, this process usually goes smoothly. If, on the other hand, Word cannot open your PDF document, you can convert PDF to Word and make the necessary changes.
That said, here's how to remove hyperlinks from a PDF using Word step by step:
- Open the document in Microsoft Word.
- To remove a single hyperlink, right-click it and select Remove Hyperlink.
- To remove every hyperlink at once, press Ctrl + A to select all text, then press Ctrl + Shift + F9. Or, alternatively, press CMD + 6 for macOS.
- Click File, then Save As.
- Choose your save location, name the document, select PDF from the Save as type menu, and click Save to finish.
LibreOffice offers the same option, with steps nearly identical to Word's. Google Docs works similarly too; upload your PDF to Drive, open it in Docs format, remove the links, and save it back as a PDF.
How to Remove Hyperlinks From a PDF Using Mac Preview
To remove hyperlinks from a PDF using Mac Preview, open the file in the built-in inspector, select each hyperlink, and delete it manually before saving your document.
To do so, follow this process:
- Open your PDF in Mac Preview.
- Click Tools in the top menu, then select Show Inspector to open the editing panel.
- Click the pencil (Annotate) icon to enter editing mode.
- Click on a hyperlink to select it, then press the Delete key to remove it.
- Repeat this for each hyperlink on the page, and move through the rest of the pages if your document has more than one.
- Press Cmd + S to save your changes once all the links are removed.
This method works well for PDFs with just a few links, but it gets tedious on longer documents. For those, the Word method saves considerably more time.
Printing PDF as an Image to Remove Hyperlinks
Besides using online software to remove links from PDFs directly, you can also print PDFs without links. In other words, hyperlinks disappear by default, as physical copies cannot contain these.
To do this, open your document with a PDF reader and choose the print option. Select whether to print only specific pages or the whole file as an image. After printing is over, you can either use your documents as physical copies or scan them to make PDF files again.
If you want to update your PDF documents with new pages containing no hyperlinks after printing, you can add them to the file and remove the old ones to avoid duplication. This option is good for small documents or when removing hyperlinks from a few pages only.
This is because printing a small number of pages is not costly and will not take up much of your time. In contrast, printing and scanning a large number of pages can be both expensive and lengthy.
Additionally, as previously mentioned, hyperlinks feature blue fonts and underlined text. This visual note is still present on printed documents, which may leave the impression that links are still in the document but are non-clickable.
4 Handy Tips and Best Practices for Removing Hyperlinks From PDF Files
Due to the nature of PDFs, removing hyperlinks from this type of file is not always easy, and the results may not always be satisfying. That’s why we prepared a set of tips and practices that can help you delete hyperlinks or remove clickable links from PDFs with minimal hassle:
#1. Use the Proper Tool
When choosing software to remove clickable links, you want to pick a safe and high-quality tool that will meet your needs. For instance, you can use tools such as pdf.net or programs like Word to remove small PDF hyperlinks.
Sometimes, you may need to delete hyperlinks from thousands of pages. In this case, the best option is to use tools with OCR technology to convert PDFs to plain text. This will change the formatting and style of the entire document, but the links will be removed. You can also use advanced options such as Python, which requires extensive knowledge but is suitable for batch processing.
Use secure PDF editors that will protect your data before and after the removal process, especially when working with sensitive documents.
#3. Use the Right Scan (Printing Only) and Document Settings
After you print PDF documents to remove hyperlinks, using the high-quality scan tool at the right settings for a higher dots-per-inch ratio (DPI) is crucial for the quality of your new files or pages.
This is why you should aim for the highest scanner resolution if you are using one above 300. Similarly, you need to disable options for automatic size reduction or configuration, which can affect the quality of your PDFs.
Furthermore, some offline programs may automatically create links when they recognize link-related word endings such as ‘.net’ or ‘com.’ To avoid this, we advise you to disable this feature.
#4. Check Your Documents After Converting and the Removal Process
One of the best hyperlink removal practices is to thoroughly examine your file after the conversion or hyperlink removal procedure and see if there are any changes.
For instance, you may open a PDF with Word or Google Docs, and the content formatting may be changed after the automatic conversion. This means you need to fix the formatting issues or use another tool for conversion.
Plus, some hyperlink removal tools may only disable hyperlinks in PDF but not remove them altogether, i.e., make them only non-clickable. Double-checking the documents for these and other non-detected links can help you fix such issues.
Finally, you need to be extra careful when replacing the old pages with the newly printed and scanned ones, as this may result in duplicates, missing pages, or pages in the wrong order. These issues might require rearranging the document.
Final Thoughts
Removing hyperlinks from a PDF doesn't have to mean sacrificing your document's formatting or spending hours on manual edits. Whether you're cleaning up a single stray link or stripping an entire document before sharing it, the right method comes down to how many links you're dealing with and whether you need to preserve the original styling.
For quick, one-off edits, pdf.net's editor gets the job done without installing anything. For documents full of links, Word's select-all shortcut is the fastest route. And if you just need a clean, non-clickable copy, printing does the trick. Whichever method you choose, a quick review afterward ensures nothing was missed.
How to Remove Hyperlinks From PDF Files FAQs
#1. How do I remove all hyperlinks from a PDF?
To remove all hyperlinks from a PDF, you can use an online PDF editor, Microsoft Word, Mac Preview, or print the file as an image. No matter the method, make sure to review the document afterwards.
#2. How to download a PDF without hyperlinks?
To download a PDF without hyperlinks, you must remove all the hyperlinks in the document beforehand. To do that, you can use one of the methods outlined in our guide.
#3. Does removing hyperlinks affect the PDF layout?
No, removing hyperlinks does not affect the PDF layout. For instance, Word's Remove Hyperlink option keeps your original text formatting intact.