How can I erase pencil/pen marks on a pdf using Acrobat 11?

[Kazamario]

I have googled this question with no success. I know that you can erase pencil marks made with the pencil tool in Acrobat, but I need to erase physical pencil marks from a scanned document.

I know that I can use Photoshop to erase, but I have seen an eraser tool in far inferior pdf programs! Can anyone tell me if this is even possible to do with Acrobat 11?

Thank you for your time!

[try67]

Your best option is probably the Redaction tool in Acrobat Pro.

[Kazamario]

So, its not possible to natively edit pencil marks in Acrobat 11?

[Phillip M Jones]

The redaction won't do it.

If you were on a Mac I would recommend a Graphic program called GraphicConverter. You could open the PDF in GraphicConverter and remove the pencil marks. Then you can resave as a PDF.

[try67]

Acrobat is not an image editor. The Redaction tool can be used to remove such marks but for anything more complex you'll need to edit the image in an external application.

[Test Screen Name]

And if you have Photoshop, Acrobat can directly run Photoshop to do that image editing. (No longer sure which tool does that in Acrobat XI).

[Kazamario]

Does anyone know what tool Test is speaking of? Very interesting!

@ - Try67 - No, its not - but for Adobe to neglect to put an eraser for physical pen/pencil for so many versions is ridculous.

[Test Screen Name]

Perhaps Adobe take the view that they already have the world's best bitmap editor, and you can use it from Acrobat - so why add a second rate bitmap editor to Acrobat?

[Kazamario]

How do you use it from acrobat? Do you remember by chance sir?

Well, because Adobe charges alot more than its competitors, so the software should have a bitmap editor - even a second rate one.

Adobe has a ton of tutorials about workflow in its products.

So, if workflow is a key aspect of Adobe's mentality there is no reason that you should have to exit out of or use another program to erase physical pencil.

It disrupts workflow. Plain and simple. Thank you for your time!

[Test Screen Name]

I could tell you for many versions of Acrobat, but not Acrobat XI, where the tools have been rearranged.

There is no need to exit, they do integrate. And that is what workflow is about, surely, cooperation between programs rather than trying to shoe-horn all functionality into one...

[Kazamario]

@Test - My bad on the workflow, I rechecked the definition in relation to Adobe products.

I scan my college books. Sometimes there are pencil marks in them. Photoshop and Acrobat 11 are roughly $400?

So why not save the consumer some $$$ and just include an eraser?

As far as the shoe-horn comment - most Adobe software does everything except bake cookies. Pshop is a perfect example of this.

It is pretty, no extremely comprehensive with what it can do. It's simply amazing! There is a ton of stuff shoe-horned in there, and most other Adobe products.

If there wasn't a background eraser tool in Pshop and other inferior photo editing programs had background eraser tools, this would be a major issue.

ABBYY Fine Reader is junk imo, but it has an eraser. Acrobat is greatness and I use it exclusively for everything pdf related.

I just simply find it appalling that there is no eraser. Your turn Test...

[Test Screen Name]

I can see the meeting now.  "Let's add this function to Acrobat" "Great idea - what is it for" "So people don't need to buy Photoshop". It's not a sale I could make.

Anyway, there have now been two people suggesting an alternative - redaction. Designed for people like governments and solicitors who have to remove sensitive information from documents, perhaps - provided it can be replaced with just white - it is what you need.

[Kazamario]

@ Test - Can i make redaction marks white? That would be sufficient for now.

Adding a simple eraser wont hurt Pshop sales Test. Nice try!

[George_Johnson]

Acrobat 11 allows you to specify a non-Photoshop external image editor, unlike previous versions, but that doesn't mean all image editors will work necessarily. Have you tried using the redaction tool? I use it on occasion for this type of thing.

[Kazamario]

@ George - Hello - Doesn't redaction leave black rectangular blocks on the pdf?

[George_Johnson]

The color can be whatever you want, including white.

[Kazamario]

@ George - Can you tell me how to specify an external image editor in Acrobat 11? Thank you for your time!

[George_Johnson]

Try: Edit > Preferences > Touchup > Choose Image Editor

That's for Acrobat 9. I'm not at my Acrobat 11 machine at the moment, but it should be something similar.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

In Acrobat XI it's under: Edit - Prefs. - Content Editing - Image Editor.

[Kazamario]

@ Everyone - Thank you so much! At least this is a manageable solution. Question solved!