Redact a PDF
Find a name or number and black it out for good, or draw boxes by hand. The document stays on this device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first visit
- Open source
- No watermark · limit is your device’s memory; phones hold less
Blacks out names, numbers and addresses in a PDF so the text underneath is removed, not just covered. It is free, needs no account and adds no watermark, and your files are not uploaded: everything runs in your browser on your device. The size limit is your device’s memory, and phones hold less; give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use, and then it works offline.
Drag on the page to black out any area by hand: a signature, a photo, a line the search missed. Tap a box to remove it.
Done
Open the network tab. Your files never appear in it.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
How it works
- Drop the PDF. Its pages show up here, drawn in your browser.
- Type a name, account number or address and press Redact all matches, or use the email, phone and long-number buttons. Drag on a page to black out anything else, such as a signature or a photo.
- Download the redacted PDF. Pages with a box become flat images with the text removed; the other pages stay as they were.
In your browser, not on a server
pdf.js (Apache 2.0) renders each page in your tab and reads its text layer, so a search finds every match with its position. When you save, each page with a box is rendered at 200 dpi, the boxes are painted onto the pixels, and pdf-lib (MIT) replaces that page’s content with the image. The old text, fonts, links, comments and form values on those pages are then deleted from the file along with its metadata, so nothing is left under the black.
Compared with upload-based tools: Redacting on a website means uploading the exact document you are trying to keep private, and many free editors only draw a black rectangle on top, so the name or number underneath can still be copied, searched or extracted. Here the file never leaves your device and the text under each box is removed, not hidden.
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
Is the text really gone, or just covered?
Gone. Each page you redact is redrawn as an image with the black boxes painted into it, and the page’s original text, fonts, links, comments and form values are deleted from the file. Copy and paste, search and text extractors find nothing under the boxes. That is the difference from drawing a black rectangle in a PDF editor, which leaves the words underneath for anyone to select.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The pages are drawn, searched and rewritten by code running in your browser tab, so a bank statement, medical record, court filing or HR document never leaves your device. The page works with Wi-Fi off after one visit and a short wait.
Why can I no longer select text on the redacted pages?
Because the whole page became an image, which is what makes the redaction safe. Pages without boxes keep their selectable text. If you need the rest of a redacted page searchable, run the result through the image to text tool, or redact as few pages as you can.
Does the search find everything?
It finds text the PDF stores as text, on every page at once, ignoring upper and lower case. It cannot read words that are part of a picture, such as a scanned page or a photo of an ID, and a match that is split across two lines is missed. Look through each page before you download, and draw boxes over anything left.
What else is removed?
The document’s metadata (author, title, creating software, dates, XMP and file ID), because the author is often the very name you are redacting, and the accessibility tags, which can repeat page text. Bookmarks and links on the pages you did not redact keep working.
Does it work on scanned or password-protected PDFs?
Scans work: draw the boxes by hand, since a scan has no text to search. A PDF that only needs a password to edit is handled automatically. If it asks for a password to open, you are prompted for it, and the result is saved without the password.
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Merge PDF
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Split PDF
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Popular conversions
Guides
- How to redact a PDFPainting a black rectangle over a name in a PDF usually just covers it, since the text is still selectable underneath. Here is how to actually delete it, for free, without uploading the document.
- How to remove metadata from a PDFA PDF often says who made it, with what, and when, without showing any of it on the page. Here is how to see it and remove it before you share the file.