Redact PDF
Black out private details for good: covered text is removed from the file, not hidden under a box.
Drop a PDF here
or click to browse
Files are processed on your device and never uploaded.
Works in your browser. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the text in the downloaded PDF no longer selectable?
That is how the redaction is made safe. Every page is turned into an image with the black boxes painted in, and a new PDF is built from those images. The original text layer is not copied, so nothing under a box can be selected, searched or copied out. The same applies to the rest of the page: the whole document becomes images.
Why not just draw black rectangles over the text?
Because the text stays in the file underneath. A rectangle drawn in most PDF editors is a shape on top of the page, and anyone can select the hidden words, paste them elsewhere, or delete the shape. Court filings and government reports have leaked exactly this way. Flattening the page into an image is what actually removes the words.
Why is the redacted file larger than my original?
Text is stored very compactly, while a picture of a page is not. A text-only PDF can grow several times over, especially at 300 dpi or with PNG images. For email and screen reading, 150 or 200 dpi with JPEG usually keeps the size reasonable; choose 300 dpi when the document will be printed.
Does the automatic search find everything?
No, so treat it as a starting point. It reads the PDF's text layer, which scanned pages do not have, and it cannot see words inside images, logos or charts. Box positions are estimated from the text runs, so check that each one covers its word fully and widen it with a hand-drawn box if needed.
What else is removed besides the covered text?
Everything that is not visible on the page. The new file carries no title, author or other metadata, no XMP, and no bookmarks, links, attachments, comments or hidden layers. Form field values and stamps that are visible are kept as part of the image, so cover them too if they are private.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. Opening, searching, rendering and rebuilding all happen in your browser, and the download is created on your device. Nothing about the file or the words you search for is sent to a server. Keep the unredacted original somewhere safe; the tool never changes it.
About this tool
Redaction fails in a familiar way. Someone draws black boxes over names in a PDF, sends it out, and a reader selects the blacked-out lines and pastes them into a text editor. The boxes were only shapes on top of the page; the words were still in the file. This tool is built so that cannot happen: the covered text is not hidden, it is no longer in the document at all.
It works by rebuilding the PDF. Each page is rendered in your browser, the boxes are painted onto that image in solid black, and a new PDF is assembled from the images. Nothing from the original file's structure is copied across, so there is no text layer, no fonts, no links, no form data, no attachments, no bookmarks and no metadata such as the title, author or XMP record. What you see on the page is all that remains.
That safety has a cost you should know about. Because every page becomes a picture, text in the redacted PDF cannot be selected, searched or read aloud by a screen reader, and the file is often larger than the original. The resolution setting controls the balance: 150 dpi is fine on screen and keeps files small, 200 dpi is a sensible default, and 300 dpi suits printing.
Finding what to cover is the other half of the job. The search boxes email addresses, phone numbers, long numbers and any words or phrases you type, on every page at once, and you can draw extra boxes by hand for signatures, photos, scanned pages and anything the search cannot read. Afterwards the tool re-opens its own output and confirms there is no extractable text left. Open the download yourself as well, check every page, and rename the file if its name gives anything away.