How to Delete Text from PDF (4 Different Ways)

Looking to polish off your PDF and remove unnecessary text? Discover four quick and easy ways to delete text from your PDF with Xodo.

When it comes to digital content, sometimes less is more. Whether you're fixing a report or simply refining your document, deleting text will be at the top of your task list.

But what if your document is already in the PDF format? You wouldn’t normally think deleting text from a PDF was possible – especially not with the precision you need.

Believe it or not, though, it’s not only possible, but easy, as well. To prove it, we’re covering four different ways to delete text from PDF, including:

• Deleting PDF text online
• Redacting PDF text
• Deleting PDF pages with text
• Converting PDF to an editable Word document

We’ll show you how to trim the excess and get your PDF into a final draft you can share. But let’s look at a few ways you can remove text from a PDF first. 

What is the best way to delete PDF text?

While there are different ways to get the job done, the best way depends on what kind PDF content you have and how much text you need removed. Here are few examples: 

Cleaning up content: If you need to remove bits of information, simply editing the PDF text is the quickest way to keep your document up to date and concise.

Maintaining confidentiality: In some cases, you may need to hide sensitive information, in which case, redacting your PDF can be the best way to blackout your PDF text to protect the data.

Customizing content: Depending on how much or how little text you need to remove, you can delete your PDF text word by word or page by page efficiently as needed.

Editing and fixing errors: Need to edit the entire document while deleting text? Converting to a more editable format will be an ideal way to both delete instances of text and make edits on a bigger scale.

From refining content to maintaining confidentiality, we’ll show you how to do it all and remove your PDF text quickly.

Delete PDF text with an online PDF text editor

The most common way to delete PDF text, use an online PDF text editor, like Xodo. It’s the quickest way to remove text from a PDF.

It’s straight forward, easily accessible, and lets you deal with your text in detail. 

1. Go to Xodo’s Edit PDF Text tool.

2. Upload your PDF.

3. Click on an editable text block. Insert your cursor next to the text to delete. Then, simply press the Backspace button on your keyboard.

4. Do this for all textual information you need to delete.

5. Once done, save your edited PDF to your device by clicking on Download, or save it to your Google Drive or Xodo Drive.

How to delete PDF text by redacting text

Another way to remove text from a PDF is to permanently redact it. This is best if you want to hide sensitive information but can’t revise the original content, such as a form or financial statement.

1. Go to Xodo’s Redact PDF tool.

2. Upload your PDF.

3. Highlight the text or select a region you want removed from the page and mark them for redaction.

You'll see all the text you’ve marked for redaction in the right-hand side panel. And if you've made a mistake, you can undo, redo, or erase any redactions you’ve done.

4. Once you’re ready, click the Redact All button and click on Apply.

5. Save the redacted PDF to your device by clicking on Download or save it to your Google Drive or Xodo Drive.

How to delete PDF text by deleting PDF pages

Got large sections of text across multiple pages to delete? In such cases, it’ll be easier to get rid of the pages entirely.

If you have an introductory section in a PDF textbook, for example, you can use Xodo to remove text from a PDF page by page.

1. Go to the free Delete Pages from PDF tool.

2. Upload your PDF either from your device, Xodo Drive, Google Drive, or Dropbox.

3. Select all the pages you want removed.

4. When you have all pages selected, click on the Delete button.

5. Then download your file to your device by clicking on the Download button or saving the file to your Xodo Drive or Google Drive storage.

How to delete text from PDF by converting to Word

Deleting text can often come with the need for more complex modifications. So, if you’re doing more revisions with your content on top of deleting text, convert your PDF to Word and you can then edit it.

1. Go to the free PDF to Word converter.

2. Upload your PDF.

3. Click on the Convert button.

4. Once the conversion is done, click on the Download button to save the file to your device.

Once your file is converted, you can instantly start editing your DOCX file right on Xodo.

Simply click on DOCX Editor under the “Continue to” section. You can then start editing and deleting text on the Xodo platform.

Go beyond deleting PDF text with Xodo

Take charge of your PDF content in more ways than one. You just learned how to remove PDF text using an online PDF text editor, redacting sensitive textual data, deleting pages, and converting PDFs to Word.

All you need are the right set of tools - and Xodo gives you access to a wide range of them that go beyond text deletion. Xodo has advanced tools to annotate, merge, compress, sign PDFs and more.

Ensure that your documents are polished, professional, and tailored just right with Xodo. Try it out today.