Redact a PDF
Black out personal details before you share a PDF. Each page you mark is rebuilt as a flat picture with the boxes painted in, so there is no text under a box to select or copy.
Add one PDF file to redact.
or drop a file here
Drag on a page to draw a box by hand; press × on a box to remove it.
Your PDF is handled inside this browser tab and is never uploaded.
How to use it
- Pick the PDF with ‘Choose a file’, or drag it onto the page.
- Under ‘Find automatically’, keep ticked the kinds of data to search for: ‘Email’, ‘Phone number’, ‘Card number’ and ‘US SSN’. Type names, addresses or other words into ‘Words to find’, separated by commas.
- Click ‘Find and mark’. Each match gets a box, and a line above the pages counts the areas and pages that will be redacted.
- Scroll through every page. Drag across anything the search missed to draw a box, press × on a box to drop it, or use ‘Clear all marks’ to start over.
- Leave ‘Also remove document info such as author and title’ ticked if the file’s hidden properties should go too.
- Click ‘Redact and save’, then ‘Download’. The redacted copy keeps your file name with -redacted added.
What it does
Four built-in searches
Each page with a text layer is searched one line at a time for US Social Security numbers, card numbers, phone numbers and email addresses. Untick any kind you don’t need.
Your own words
Names of people, streets or companies go into ‘Words to find’, separated by commas. Capital letters don’t matter, and each word is matched exactly as typed.
Boxes by hand
Drag across a page to box a signature, a stamp, a photo or anything the search can’t read. Every box has an × to take it back.
Marked pages become pictures
Each marked page is redrawn with the boxes painted solid black, and only that picture goes into the saved file. The original page, with the text under the boxes, is not copied into it at all. Pages without a mark keep their text, pictures and links.
Hidden document info
Optionally clears the title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer fields, and the XML copy of that info. With no boxes drawn, the tool still writes a fresh copy, just without that info.
A count you can check
A line above the pages reports how many areas on how many pages will be redacted, and the first page with a mark scrolls into view after each search.
Good to know
Rebuilding a page as a picture has side effects. The page is drawn at 200 dpi, so all of its text, not only the boxed parts, stops being selectable and searchable, links and form fields on it are gone, and the file can grow, especially when the original pages were mostly text. Pages without a box keep their text and layout.
Automatic search reads each page’s text layer one line at a time. It can’t see into a scan, so draw boxes by hand there, and it won’t join a name that wraps onto a second line. Emails are found in common formats. A card number is read as sixteen digits in groups of four, so a 15-digit American Express number needs a box of your own. A Social Security number must have its dashes, and phone numbers are the least certain match.
Treat every mark as a suggestion. Look through all pages, then open the saved copy, try to select text under a box and search for a word you hid. The saved copy is written as a new file: it holds the pages and, unless you clear it, the document info. Bookmarks and attachments of the original, which can hold names too, are left out, and form fields stop being fillable. Your original file is never altered.
Questions and answers
Why not just draw a black box in a PDF editor?
A shape drawn over text hides it from view but not from copy and paste: the words are still in the page underneath. Here each marked page is rebuilt as a picture with the box painted in, so there is nothing under a box to copy.
Will it find every phone number and email?
Email addresses in common formats are found. The ‘Phone number’ search looks for three or four digits, a hyphen, dot or space, and four more digits, as in 555-0142 or 010-1234-5678. A number written (415) 555-0132 or 415-555-0132 may get only its last seven digits marked, and 415.555.0132 or 4155550132 may be missed, so check each mark and box the rest by hand.
Can I redact a scanned PDF?
A scan has no text layer, so the search finds nothing there and the page says so. Draw boxes by hand and the page is rebuilt the same way.
Does it remove the author name and other metadata?
Yes, while the document-info option is ticked, which it is by default. It clears the title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer fields, and it works on its own too if you draw no boxes.
Can I undo a redaction after saving?
Not with this tool. The saved copy has the boxes painted into the page pictures, and there is no way to lift them out again. Your original file isn’t changed, so keep it and share only the redacted copy.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. Searching, marking and rebuilding the pages all happen in your browser. To let other tools open the same file, the page keeps a copy in your browser’s own storage for up to two hours; it stays on your device.