About Redact PDF
Redacting means removing information from a document so nobody can read it, not just covering it. This tool lets you draw black boxes over anything private in a PDF, such as names, ID numbers, phone numbers, account details or signatures, and it can search the document for a word or number and box every place it appears. When you download, the content under the boxes is gone from the file.
The usual mistake is to draw a black rectangle in a PDF editor and send the file. The rectangle hides the text on screen, but the words are still inside the PDF and anyone can select and copy them. To avoid that, this tool redraws each page that has a box as an image with the boxes painted in, so that page no longer contains text at all. Pages without boxes are copied unchanged and keep their selectable text. Everything happens in your browser, and the file is never uploaded.
Why use it
- Real removal: redacted pages are rebuilt as images, so the hidden words cannot be copied, searched or recovered from them.
- Search and box: type a name, number or email and every match in the document is boxed for you to review.
- Arabic search works with or without diacritics and with different forms of alef, ya and ta marbuta.
- Only the pages you redact change; every other page keeps its original text, links and quality.
- An option removes the document information (title, author, subject, keywords, creating app) that often reveals who wrote a file.
- The PDF never leaves your device, which matters most for exactly the documents you need to redact.
How to use
Open the PDF
Drag the file onto the box or tap it to choose a PDF. The pages appear as previews.
Search for what to hide
Type a word, name, number or email in the search field and press “Find and box”. Each match gets a black box. Repeat for every term you need to remove.
Draw the remaining boxes
Drag on a page to draw a box over a signature, photo, stamp or anything search did not find. On a phone, switch the button to “Draw boxes” first, because touch scrolls the pages by default.
Check every box
Tap a box to select it, drag it to move it, drag its corner to resize it, or press × to remove it. Scroll through all pages before exporting.
Choose options and download
Pick the image quality of redacted pages (150, 200 or 300 DPI), keep or untick the document information option, then press “Redact and download PDF”. The file is saved with “-redacted” added to its name.
Examples
Sharing a payslip
Search for your employee number and IBAN, box them, and also draw a box over the salary line. Only page 1 becomes an image; the 3 pages of terms that follow stay as searchable text.
Anonymising a case file
Search for the client’s surname. In a 20-page document it might be found 47 times on 15 pages; every match is boxed in one go, and you only need to check them.
An Arabic contract
Search for «محمد العتيبي» and the phone number 0551234567. The search ignores diacritics, so «مُحمّد» also matches, and the boxes follow the right-to-left text.
A scanned document
A scan has no text layer, so search reports that it cannot work. Draw the boxes by hand; the redacted page is rebuilt as an image with the boxes burned in, just like a text page.
| What happens | Black shape drawn in an editor | This tool |
|---|---|---|
| Text under the box | Still in the file | Removed from the page |
| Copying or searching the hidden words | Possible | Not possible |
| Pages without boxes | Unchanged | Copied unchanged, text stays selectable |
| Pages with boxes | Unchanged with a shape on top | Rebuilt as an image at 150, 200 or 300 DPI |
| Title and author information | Kept | Removed (default) or kept, your choice |
Tips
- Search for every form of a detail: full name, surname alone, and numbers written with and without spaces or dashes.
- Search finds text, not pictures. Draw boxes yourself over signatures, stamps, photos and logos.
- Boxes from search include a small margin around the word. Make them bigger if a letter edge still shows in the preview.
- Use 300 DPI when the redacted pages have small print that must stay readable; 150 DPI gives the smallest file.
The PDF is opened, searched and redacted inside your browser and is never uploaded to a server. Only the free PDF libraries are downloaded from public CDNs.
Frequently asked questions
Is the redacted text really gone?
Yes. A page with at least one box is replaced by an image of that page with the boxes painted black. The new page contains no text, so there is nothing under the box to copy or extract.
Why do the redacted pages become images?
Because hiding text safely inside a PDF is unreliable: text can sit in several layers, fonts and hidden objects. Turning the page into a picture removes all of it in one step. The cost is that text on that page can no longer be selected or searched.
Do my other pages lose their text too?
No. Only pages that contain a box are converted. Every other page is copied from the original file as it was, with selectable text.
Which DPI should I pick?
200 DPI is a good balance for normal documents. Choose 300 DPI for small print or detailed drawings, and 150 DPI when the file size matters most. The page size in the file does not change.
Does search work with Arabic?
Yes. It ignores diacritics and tatweel, treats أ إ آ as ا, ى as ي and ة as ه, and handles Arabic PDFs that store each letter separately. Some PDFs encode their text in a broken way; if a word is not found, draw the box by hand.
What document information is removed?
With the option ticked, the new file has no title, author, subject, keywords, creating program or producer. With it unticked, the title, author, subject, keywords and creator are copied from the original.
Is anything else left out of the new file?
Yes. The new PDF is built from the pages only, so bookmarks, file attachments and form data at document level are not carried over. Links and comments on redacted pages are removed with the text.
Can I redact a scanned PDF?
Yes, by drawing boxes. Search cannot read scans, but the redacted page is still rebuilt as an image with the boxes burned in.
Can I undo a box?
Before downloading, yes: select it and press ×, or use “Remove all boxes”. After downloading, the removed content cannot be brought back from the new file, so keep your original.
Why won’t a password-protected PDF open?
Encrypted PDFs cannot be rebuilt without removing the protection first. Remove the password in the program that created the file and try again.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Pages scroll by default on touch screens; tap “Draw boxes” to switch to drawing, then drag on the page. Very large pages are scaled so they stay within the memory limits of phones.
Last updated: