Redact PDF
Black out names, addresses, account numbers and anything else in a PDF so it’s gone for good, not just hidden under a box. Nothing is uploaded: it all happens on your device.
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Drop a PDF here, or click to choose
It opens on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
Separate several with commas. Matching ignores capitals. Search can’t read text inside pictures or scans: draw a box over those.
Drag on a page to cover anything. Turn drawing off to scroll the pages with your finger. Tap a box to remove it.
How to redact a PDF
- Choose or drop the PDF.
- Type words to find (or tick email addresses, phone numbers or long numbers) and click Find & black out, and drag on any page to cover anything else.
- Click Redact & download PDF. The new file is checked for anything left behind.
About this tool
Many redacted documents that leak weren’t really redacted: a black rectangle was drawn over the text, but the text was still underneath, so anyone could select it, copy it or search for it. This tool doesn’t do that. Every page with a redaction is redrawn as a picture with the black boxes burned in, so the words, the fonts and anything hidden under the boxes are simply not in the new file. Pages you didn’t touch are copied unchanged, with their text still selectable.
Finding text uses Mozilla’s PDF.js to read each page’s text and its position, then blacks out every match, with a little extra margin so no edge of a letter shows. Text that’s only a picture (a scan or a photo) can’t be searched, so look through every page and draw boxes over anything the search didn’t find.
When you download, the new PDF is opened again and checked: if any text is left on a redacted page, or any word you searched for still appears anywhere in it, you’re told where. Document details such as the author, title, the software used and the dates are removed too, unless you untick that.
Everything happens in your browser with pdf-lib and PDF.js: the PDF is never uploaded, so it’s safe for legal papers, medical letters, bank statements and anything else confidential.
Questions about redacting PDFs
Can the redacted text be recovered?
No. Redacted pages are rebuilt as images with the boxes burned in, so the original text isn’t in the file at all. There’s nothing underneath to uncover.
Why can’t I select text on the redacted pages any more?
Because those pages are now pictures: that’s what makes the redaction permanent. Pages without redactions keep their selectable text.
Does it work on scanned PDFs?
Yes, by drawing boxes. A scan’s text is part of the picture, so search can’t find it, but anything you cover with a box is removed.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. It’s opened and redacted in your browser, on your device, and never sent anywhere. It even works with airplane mode on.
Does it remove hidden information?
It removes the document details (author, title, software and dates). Ticking “Flatten every page” also rebuilds every page as an image, dropping all hidden text, links, form fields and layers.