Redact PDF

1. 1Add the PDF containing details you need to remove.
2. 2Pick a page, then drag across anything that must go.
3. 3Repeat on any other pages — the page list shows how many areas each one has.
4. 4Press Apply redactions and download the result.

The failure everyone has read about is drawing a black rectangle over text in an editor: the rectangle is a separate object sitting above the words, and the words are still in the file, ready to be copied out by anyone who selects the page. Newspapers and law firms have leaked whole documents this way.

This tool avoids that entirely. Every page you mark is rendered to a picture, the marked areas are painted out on that picture, and the picture replaces the page. The characters underneath are not covered — they are not written into the new file at all, so there is nothing to select, copy or recover.

Pages you do not mark are copied across untouched and keep their selectable text, so only the pages that need flattening lose it. Marked areas are stored as fractions of the page, so what you draw on the preview maps exactly onto the full-size page.

The file is read into your browser's memory, changed there, and handed straight back to you. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no queue and no copy sitting on a server afterwards.

• Find every occurrence before you start: search the original with Ctrl+F, or run it through PDF to Text, so a name repeated in a footer or appendix is not missed.
• Flatten fillable forms first so typed answers are redacted with the rest of the page.
• Test the result: search the redacted copy for the words you removed and try selecting text on a redacted page. Nothing should be found.
• Clear the author and title with the PDF Metadata Editor, and give the file a neutral name before sending it.

• How to redact a PDF properly — and why black boxes don’t work
• What a PDF can reveal about you — and how to remove it before sharing
• How to watermark a PDF — draft, confidential or copy