Tools › PDF tools › PDF Redaction Tool
Black out sensitive parts of a PDF. Pages are converted to images before redacting, so there's no risk of the covered text being copy-pasted out.
Your PDF is never sent to a server (processed in your browser)
How to use
- Choose the PDF you want to redact — every page appears as an image.
- Drag over the parts you want to black out (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) — works on multiple areas and multiple pages.
- Press "Redact & save PDF" to download a new PDF with the redactions baked in.
Avoiding "fake" redaction
Simply drawing a black rectangle over a PDF page while leaving the underlying text layer intact is a well-known trap — the text underneath can often still be selected and copy-pasted out, defeating the whole point.
This tool renders each page as an image first, paints the black boxes onto that image, and rebuilds the PDF entirely out of images. Since the whole page becomes "a picture," no text — redacted or not — remains as copyable or searchable data anywhere in the file.
The tradeoff
In exchange for that security, the resulting PDF loses the ability to select, search, or copy text anywhere — and file size may grow since it's now image-based. If you only need part of a document redacted while keeping the rest fully text-selectable, this approach isn't a fit.
FAQ
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Rendering pages, redacting, and rebuilding the PDF all happen entirely in your browser.
Why does text outside the black boxes also become unselectable?
Because the whole page is rebuilt as a single image. This tool doesn't try to remove text data from just the covered region — in practice, reliably removing text from part of a page requires rasterizing the entire page.
Can I redact a password-protected PDF?
Not currently. If loading fails, that will be shown.
It says the file couldn't be loaded, but it isn't password-protected.
On Windows, files downloaded from the internet are sometimes automatically flagged as blocked (right-click the file → Properties, and you'll see a note like "This file came from another computer and might be blocked"). If so, checking "Unblock" in the Properties dialog and clicking OK often resolves it.
Does it work with PDFs that have many pages?
Yes, but converting more pages to images takes longer. For documents over a few dozen pages, a PC is recommended.