How to redact a PDF
- Choose the document. Drag it into the area above or click to pick it.
- Draw over what must go. Drag across the page to mark an area. Mark as many as you need, on as many pages as you need.
- Press Redact and download. The marked content is removed from the file itself, not hidden behind a shape.
- Check the result. Open it and try to select the text you removed.
Why a black rectangle hides nothing
Because drawing a shape adds something on top; it does not take anything away. The text is still in the file, and a copy-and-paste brings it straight back.
This is one of the most common ways confidential information leaks: a document that looks redacted on screen, published as a PDF, and read in full by anyone who selects the page and pastes it into a text editor. The rectangle is a picture. The words are data.
What this tool does is different: the page is rebuilt without the content you marked. What you covered is gone from the bytes, not merely out of sight.
How can I check it really worked?
Open the finished file and try to select the text you removed. There should be nothing to select.
It is worth doing this once, on a document that does not matter, before you trust any redaction tool — including this one. A check that takes ten seconds is the difference between believing a promise and knowing.
Does the document leave my device?
No. There is no server here that could receive it.
Redaction is exactly the case where uploading is hardest to justify: the file you want to make safe is, by definition, the one you least want to hand to someone else. Here the work happens in your browser, and the page declares a Content Security Policy that forbids sending your document anywhere. You can watch the network traffic while you use it.
What this tool does not do
It removes what you mark. It does not find sensitive information for you.
There is no automatic detection of names, numbers or addresses: you decide what disappears, page by page. That is a deliberate limit — a tool that promises to find every secret for you is a tool that will eventually miss one, quietly.
Frequently asked questions
Is the document uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no application server: the redaction happens in your browser, on your own device, and the page forbids sending your file elsewhere.
Is this the same as drawing a black rectangle?
No, and the difference is the whole point. A rectangle is added on top and the text stays underneath, recoverable with a copy and paste. Here the content itself is removed from the file.
Can the removed text be recovered?
Not from the file this tool produces: what you marked is no longer in it. Keep your original if you still need the full version.
Does it find sensitive information for me?
No. You decide what disappears, page by page. A tool that promises to find every secret for you is a tool that will eventually miss one.