[Free] How to Remove Background from PDF on Windows/Online

Melissa Lee updated on Apr 09, 2024 to PDF Editor Tutorials

Background images in a PDF file can be annoying, especially when you need to print the document. In this post, you can find online and offline PDF background remover that will help you remove background from PDF without a problem.

Update:
Recently, Microsoft is making a change to its Microsoft Office branding. Microsoft Office is being renamed by Microsoft 365. After the official renaming, our article content will be updated accordingly.

Sometimes you may get a PDF file with a background image or background color. People who set the background perhaps want to use the picture as a watermark or make the PDF look better. However, it becomes a big problem for readers to deal with PDF files as those pictures distract many people. That is why they want to remove the PDF background before reading and printing the file out. 

In this post, you will learn how to remove background from PDF with online and offline tools. These PDF background removers will remove the background image or color, ensuring the printed PDF is easy to read.

How to Remove PDF Background:

Step 1. Launch EaseUS PDF Editor on your PC and import the file you want to edit.

Step 2. Go to the "Pages" tab and choose the "Background" option under the "Page Design" section.

Step 3. Click on the "Remove" button to delete the PDF background permanently.

Step 4. When a window pop up... >> Click to Continue

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Remove Background from PDF Offline - EaseUS PDF Editor Launch EaseUS PDF Editor and import the PDF you want to edit...Full steps
Fix 2. Remove Background from PDF Offline - Adobe Acrobat Open the home page of Google Docs and click on...Full steps
Fix 3. Remove Images from PDF Online - Google Docs Launch this PDF editor and import the PDF into it...Full steps
Fix 4. Remove Images from PDF Online - Smallpdf Open the "PDF to the Word" tool and upload the PDF file...Full steps
Bonus Tips: How to Remove Images from PDF Launch this PDF editor and import the PDF into it...Full steps

Remove Background from PDF Offline

It is always good to use desktop software to remove background images as they are more efficient and offer more features. You can use EaseUS PDF Editor and Adobe Acrobat as the offline PDF background removers.

1. Remove Background from PDF Offline - EaseUS PDF Editor [Hot]

While the PDF format is handy, there are also flaws. For instance, PDF documents can be difficult to edit if it's scanned. Don't worry. EaseUS PDF Editor can convert a scanned PDF file to editable and allows you to edit PDF documents from various aspects, including editing text, adding images, and even customizing the PDF background.

Using those tools, you can make the PDF background perfect for your needs, whether it's an image background or a pure color background. This powerful software supports adjusting the opacity of the image background and changing the PDF background color without effort.

Key Features:

  • Add, remove, or edit PDF background
  • Crop, split, rotate, compress, and highlight PDF
  • Insert, delete, and edit images in PDF
  • Print out PDF in high quality
  • Remove password from PDF quickly

Download this software to remove any type of background from your PDFs. No registration is required.

Steps to Remove Background from PDF with EaseUS PDF Editor:

Step 1. Launch EaseUS PDF Editor and import the PDF you want to edit.

Step 2. Then, navigate to the "Pages" tab, and in the "Page Design" section, you can find a "Background" option that allows you to add, update, and remove the background.

If you want to remove the background image from PDF permanently, click on the "Remove" button. A window will pop up and ask you if you want to remove the background permanently. Click "Yes" to confirm your choice. If the file doesn't have a background, the app will tell you.

This all-in-one PDF processing software also provides you with the tool for printing PDF without background. Click on "File" > "Print" to do that easily. Besides that, it lets you print out the PDF without background by clicking on "Ctrl" + "P" on your keyboard.

Related Information: >> Remove watermark from PDF

In addition to removing background from PDF files, EaseUS PDF Editor also supports removing a PDF watermark. Click to know the methods of doing that.

2. Remove Background from PDF Offline - Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat DC is a compelling PDF editing and content creation tool that lets you create PDF documents and edit them with ease. With this software, you can make your PDFs look like they are issued from a high-end publishing printer. It helps you create multiple PDF forms or remove content you do not want people to see, like your phone number or address.

You can also remove strikethrough in PDF, convert it to a different format, and even secure it with a password or a digital signature, all of which will ensure that nobody will be able to mess with the file you create.

Steps to Remove Background Image for Printing with Adobe Acrobat:

Step 1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat reader. You can either use open with or double click if Adobe is the default reader.

Step 2. Next, click on "Tools" > "Edit PDF". It will display a secondary toolbar. Click on "More" > "Background" > "Remove".

Step 3. Once you are sure that images have been removed, you can choose to save the file.

Step 4. If you want to print out the PDF directly, click on "File" > "Print" and select "Adobe PDF" from the list of printers in the "Print" dialog box. Then, hit "Print" > "OK" to start printing.

Remove PDF Background Online

Using an online tool is easy because it works on any platform, and you don't have to install any software. This post will use Google Drive and Smallpdf as the online PDF background removers in this part.

1. Remove Images from PDF Online Using Google Docs

Google Docs is an online storage solution and document editor offered for free to all Google accounts. It also allows you to edit any PDF file, convert it to Microsoft Document format, share it with others for real-time editing, and so on. 

You can create spreadsheets, doodle in Google Drawings, and even create presentations with Google Slides. Google Docs is a great way to work on a document with others, either in real-time or at a later date. You can also make your documents available offline, which is very convenient if you're working on a tablet or other mobile device.

How to Remove the Background of a Picture in Google Docs:

If you get a PDF file with a background image, the built-in OCR tool of Google Docs can remove that picture for you.

Step 1. Open the home page of Google Docs and click on "File" > "Open," and then, there will be a window for you to select the file.

Step 2. Go to the "Upload" tab. Drag and drop to upload the PDF file or select it from your device.

Step 3. Then, the button "Open with Google Docs" will appear, and you need to select "Google Docs" from the drop-down menu. 

Step 4. The Google Docs will open the file after converting it as an editable document without a background image. If you want to convert it to PDF again, click "File" > "Download" > "PDF Document (.pdf)" to do that conversion. 

Finally, you will get a PDF file without a background image. 

Tips: How to Get Rid of Background Color in Google Docs

How to remove background color in Google Docs? Here are the steps that enable you to remove the background color easily.

Step 1. When you want to get rid of background color in Google Docs, import it into Google Docs at first.

Step 2. Click "File" > "Page setup" to adjust the settings of the document pages. 

Step 3. Click on the option under "Page color" and customize the background color freely. If you want to remove the background color in Google Docs, the white color is suitable.

Step 4. Click on the "File" button again and select the "Download" option to save the file in the format you need.

2. Remove PDF Background Online Using Smallpdf

Smallpdf is a professional online PDF editor that offers many features that can be used with PDF files, including forms. You can use the free version of this PDF background remover online to upload the file and then convert or edit the document.

The overall processing is fast, and if you buy the paid plan, it will unlock many more features. When it comes to background image removal, there is no direct function, but you can use the conversion feature to separate images and text in the document. Later, it can be removed using any standard document editor and printed into a PDF file.

Steps to Remove Background Image from PDF Online Free:

Step 1. Open the "PDF to the Word" tool and upload the PDF file online. When prompted, use the standard function instead of OCR.

Step 2. Once the conversion is complete, download the document file on the computer. You can then choose to open this with any document editor. The background image will be available as a selectable image.

Step 3. Select the background image and then delete it. You will have to repeat this for all the pages. Once done, you can then print the document as a PDF. You now have a PDF that doesn't have any background image.

Bonus Tips: How to Remove Images from PDF

Sometimes the images in a PDF file are not its background image, and they are inserted into the PDF as illustrating pictures to make the content easier to understand. Generally speaking, it's much more convenient to deal with this type of picture than background images. All you need is a PDF editor.

For users who want to edit the images with more advanced tools, like extracting PDF images and saving them as new files, EaseUS PDF Editor can be the most suitable software. It can convert a scanned PDF file to editable so that you can edit any image in the PDF without any hassle. In addition to removing images from PDF, this software also supports rotating, flipping, and  cropping those pictures. The tutorial below will guide you to delete the images step by step.    

Steps to Remove Images from PDF with EaseUS PDF Editor:

Step 1. Launch this PDF editor and import the PDF into it.

Step 2. Navigate to the "Edit" tab, and then the pictures in PDF will become editable. If not, you can use the OCR function to make it possible to edit the PDF file. 

Step 3. Right-click the image and select "Delete" to remove the image from PDF.

Conclusion

This post talked about many powerful PDF background removers. When it comes to desktop software, you can easily use EaseUS PDF Editor to remove background from PDF. If you do not like to install software, using online tools like Google Docs is also an excellent choice. However, these online tools might mess up the document's layout and remove all images instead of the background images.

Which one is the best tool for you? 

FAQs About PDF Background Remover

You may still have some questions about removing the PDF background. These FAQs may help you.

1. How to get rid of background color in Word?

You can follow those steps to disable the page color in your Word documents.

  • Step 1. Open the Word document you want to edit.
  • Step 2. Click on the "Design" option and click on the "Page Color" button in the "Page Background" group.
  • Step 3. Select the "No Color" option from the drop-down menu.

2. How to remove background in pdf for printing?

First of all, you should have a powerful PDF editor that supports PDF printing, such as EaseUS PDF Editor.

  • Step 1. Launch the PDF editor and import the PDF file you want to edit.
  • Step 2. Go to the "Page" tab, and there will be many options on your right side. Click on the "Background" option in the "Page Design" section.
  • Step 3. Choose the "Remove" option. When a pop-up box asks you if you want to remove the PDF background permanently, click on "Yes" to confirm.
  • Step 4. After removing the PDF background, click on "File" > "Print" to print the PDF file out.

3. How do I remove a background in Adobe Acrobat Pro?

Follow those steps to remove PDF background using Adobe Pro.

  • Step 1. First, open the PDF file you want to edit using Adobe Acrobat.
  • Step 2. Then, click on "Tools" > "Edit PDF". When a secondary toolbar appears, click on "More" and choose "Background" > "Remove."
  • Step 3. After removing the background image, you can save the edited PDF to your device.
  • Step 4. If you want to print the PDF without a background, click on "File" > "Print" to do that.

4. How do I make a PDF background white?

If you have installed EaseUS PDF Editor on your device, making the PDF background white is easy.

  • Step 1. Launch EaseUS PDF Editor and import the PDF you want to edit.
  • Step 2. Go to the "Page" tab and hit the "Background" button in the "Page Design" group.
  • Step 3. Select the "Update" option to adjust the background color of your PDF.
  • Step 4. Choose the white color as the background color and save the PDF by clicking "File" > "Save."

5. Which is the best PDF background remover online and offline?

Top 4 PDF background removers on Windows/Mac/Online:

  • EaseUS PDF Editor - for Windows
  • Adobe Acrobat - for Windows/Mac
  • Google Docs - for online
  • Smallpdf - for online