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Redact PDF

Black out names, numbers and anything private, and remove what is underneath instead of just covering it. Everything happens in your own browser; nothing is uploaded.

What this does to your PDF

  • Pages with a box become pictures. What is under a box is removed for good, not just covered. The rest of that page can no longer be selected or searched, and the file may get larger.
  • Pages without a box are left exactly as they are.
  • The title, author, bookmarks and attachments of the whole document are removed.
  • It cannot read inside pictures. If a photo or screenshot has something to hide, draw a box over it yourself.
  • Your original file is not changed, and nothing is uploaded.

Common questions

  • It is real. A black rectangle drawn over text hides it from the eye but leaves it in the file, where anyone can still select, copy or search it. This tool instead turns every page that has a box into a picture with the boxes painted into the pixels, so the text underneath no longer exists in the file. After it finishes, the tool re-reads the result and refuses to offer the download if any text, link or annotation is left on a redacted page.

Why a black box is not enough

The usual way to hide something in a PDF is to draw a black rectangle over it. It looks right, but the text is still in the file underneath: select the area, copy and paste, or search for the word, and it comes straight back. Courts, companies and newspapers have all published documents that were redacted this way and leaked exactly what they meant to hide.

What this tool does instead

Every page that has a box is drawn to a picture with the boxes painted into the pixels, and the PDF is rebuilt from those pictures. There is no text left under a box because there is no text left on the page. The title, author, bookmarks and attachments of the whole document are dropped as well, since they often repeat what you are hiding. Pages you did not box are copied across unchanged. When it finishes, the tool re-reads the result and will not offer the download if text, links or annotations remain on a redacted page.

The honest trade-offs

A redacted page can no longer be selected or searched, including the words you did not hide, and the file gets bigger. If you need searchable text again, run the result through OCR PDF. The tool finds text, not words inside photos, so draw a box over those yourself. To lock the finished file, use Protect PDF, and to clean up what a PDF says about its author, use Edit Metadata. Always open the result and check it before you share it.