Redact PDF
Drag boxes over anything that needs to disappear. The page is then rebuilt so the hidden content is genuinely gone from the file — not just covered over.
- ProcessingOn your device
- Uploaded to a serverNothing
- InternetNot needed
Don't take our word for it. Turn off your Wi‑Fi, then use this tool. It will work exactly the same, which is only possible because your file never goes anywhere.
Worth knowing
Where your box covers only text, just those words are cut out of the file and the rest of the page stays live — still selectable and searchable. Where it also covers a picture, a logo or a drawing, that page is rebuilt as an image instead, because deleting text would leave the picture behind. The result tells you which happened on each page.
Before anything downloads, the finished file is searched for the words you redacted. If any are still findable the download is stopped rather than handed to you — the guarantee is checked, not assumed.
Redaction removes; covering does not
This is the one PDF operation where getting it wrong has consequences. Court filings, corporate disclosures and government releases have all leaked the same way: someone drew a black rectangle over a name, and the name was still in the file underneath it.
Why the black box fails
A PDF is not a picture of a document. It is a set of instructions — draw this text, in this font, at this position — and adding a black rectangle adds one more instruction on top. It does not remove the one underneath. Select the area and copy, and the text comes straight out.
Real redaction deletes the underlying content and then covers the space. The order matters: remove first, mark second. What is left is a document with nothing to recover.
What else carries the same information
- Document metadata — author, title and software often name a person or an organisation.
- Bookmarks and the table of contents, which may still list a section you removed.
- Comments and annotations, which are stored separately from the page.
- Filenames, which travel with the document and are frequently the most revealing part of it.
Check your work
After redacting, open the file and try to select the area you removed. Then search the document for the word you took out. If neither returns anything, the redaction held. It takes ten seconds and it is the only verification that means anything.
More on this: why a black box does not redact anything.
Questions people ask
Can someone copy the text from under the black box?
No. Plenty of tools draw a rectangle on top and leave the words selectable underneath, which is how redaction failures end up in the news. This one deletes the actual text-drawing instructions from the file, then searches the finished document for what you redacted and refuses to hand it over if anything survived.
Does the rest of my page stay searchable?
Usually, yes — and that is the difference from most tools. If the area you marked contained only text, only those words are removed and everything else on the page keeps its live, selectable text. The page is only rebuilt as an image when the marked area also covered a picture or a drawing, because then deleting text alone would leave the picture recoverable underneath the black box.
Why did my page get turned into an image?
Because the area you marked covered more than text — a photo, a logo, a scanned signature or vector artwork. Removing the text would hide that content behind a rectangle while leaving it fully intact in the file, so the page is rasterised instead, which cannot leave anything behind. It is the safe answer rather than the convenient one.
How do I know it actually worked?
The tool checks, rather than asking you to trust it. After the edit and before the download, the finished file is re-opened and searched for every string that was supposed to be removed, using the same engine a reader uses to select and copy text. You get the count back — 0 instances found — and if anything is still there, nothing downloads.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything happens in your browser, which is why you can disconnect from the internet, redact, and still download the result. For a document sensitive enough to need redacting, that distinction is the whole point.
How to use it
Privacy & security · 8 August 2026 · 3 min
Black boxes don't redact a PDF. Here's what does.
Drawing a black rectangle over text leaves the text in the file, where anyone can copy it out. How redaction actually works, and how to check your file is clean before you send it.
Privacy & security · 21 August 2026 · 7 min
What your PDF says about you, and how to remove it
Every PDF carries a hidden record of who made it, with what software, and exactly when. Most of it is in two places, most tools clear only one, and the consequences are more concrete than people expect.