Why drawing a black box is not enough
The classic redaction failure is a black rectangle drawn on top of text. It looks solid on screen, but the words are still in the file: select the area, copy it, paste it elsewhere, and the hidden text appears. Newspapers, law firms and government departments have all published documents that leaked this way.
This tool avoids that. Every page you mark is rendered as a flat image with the black boxes burned in, and the original text, fonts and vector content of that page are discarded. What was under the box is genuinely gone from the file. Pages you did not mark are copied through untouched, so the rest of the document stays selectable and searchable.
How to redact a PDF
Step 1: Add your PDF
Drop one file, up to 200 MB. Pages are rendered so you can see what you are covering.
Step 2: Draw over sensitive content
Drag on the page to draw a black box. Drag a box to move it, or use its handles to resize.
Step 3: Work through the pages
Use the page thumbnails or the arrows. A badge shows how many boxes each page has.
Step 4: Download the redacted PDF
Marked pages are rebuilt without their original content, and the file is saved.
How the redaction works
Content is removed, not hidden
Redacted pages are flattened to an image, so the text underneath no longer exists in the file.
Only marked pages change
Untouched pages keep their vector text, links and full quality.
Boxes you can adjust
Move and resize each box until it covers exactly what it should.
Document properties dropped
The redacted file is built fresh, so the original title and author do not travel with it.
What people redact
Personal data. Names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and identity numbers.
Financial details. Bank account and card numbers on statements and invoices.
Legal disclosure. Third party information that must not appear in a shared bundle.
Business documents. Prices, margins and client names in a reference case study.
What to check before you send the file
Cover a little more than the text itself, because characters can extend slightly past their visible ink and a tight box can leave a legible sliver. Zoom in on each redaction in the finished file and try selecting the area: on a redacted page there is nothing to select, which is the confirmation that it worked.
Remember that context can reveal what a box hides. A redacted name that appears in full elsewhere in the same document, a signature that is left visible, or a file name containing the name all defeat the redaction. Search the finished document for the sensitive term before sharing it.
- Draw boxes slightly larger than the text.
- Check every page, including headers, footers and appendices.
- Search the result for the sensitive words.
The trade-off on redacted pages
Because a redacted page becomes an image, its text is no longer selectable or searchable, and the page is rendered at roughly 144 dots per inch, which is comfortable to read on screen and fine for normal printing. Pages without redactions are not affected at all, so a 100 page report with two redacted pages keeps 98 pages of real text.
That also means a redacted page can be larger or smaller than the original depending on its content. If the final file is heavier than you would like, run it through the PDF compressor afterwards.
Tips for safe redaction
- Redact last, after merging and extracting, so no unredacted copy stays in the final file.
- Keep the original in a secure place; redaction cannot be undone in the exported file.
- Watch for sensitive data in headers, footers, stamps and scanned margins.
- Metadata elsewhere, such as the file name you send, is not covered by redaction boxes.
Redact PDF FAQ
Is the text under the box really gone?
Yes. Pages with redactions are rebuilt as flat images with the boxes burned in, so the original text is not in the exported file.
Can I still select text in the document?
On redacted pages, no, because they become images. Every other page keeps its selectable text.
Can I search a PDF for text to redact?
Not in this tool. You mark areas visually by drawing boxes on the page.
Does the quality of redacted pages drop?
They are rendered at about 144 dots per inch, which reads well on screen and prints acceptably.
Does it remove document properties?
The exported file is built from scratch, so the original title and author are not carried over.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Rendering and rebuilding happen in your browser.