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Remove private information from a PDF so it cannot be recovered.
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Redacting means taking something out of a document so it cannot be recovered. Not hiding it. Not covering it. Taking it out.
Only the pages you actually mark are rebuilt. The rest of the document is carried across exactly as it was.
Draw a black rectangle over a name in a PDF and it disappears from view. The name itself does not move. It sits in the file exactly where it was, underneath the box, and any tool that pulls text out of a PDF reads it straight through.
This is one of the most common ways private information escapes from documents that look perfectly redacted, and it has caught out governments, law firms, and newspapers. The document looked right. Nobody checked what was still inside it.
So any page you redact here is rebuilt as an image. The page becomes dots rather than letters, and there is no hidden text left to find. That is why text on those pages stops being selectable, and that loss is the proof that it worked.
Do not take anyone's word for it, including ours. Open the result and try selecting the text on a redacted page, or run it through the PDF to Text tool. Nothing from behind a black box should come back.
One more thing before the document leaves your hands. Author names, dates, and the software that made the file sit elsewhere in it and are untouched by redaction. Run the result through Remove PDF Metadata as well.
Add your PDF, click over anything that has to go, and adjust the box until it covers the whole of it. When you save, every page you marked is rebuilt so the words underneath are genuinely gone.
Because a box is just something drawn on top. The words are still in the file underneath, exactly where they were, and any tool that pulls text out of a PDF will read them straight through the box. This is one of the most common ways private information leaks out of documents that look redacted, and it has embarrassed governments and law firms more than once.
Any page holding a redaction is rebuilt as an image. That means the page becomes dots rather than letters, so there is no hidden text left to find. It is the only approach that can be verified by simply looking at what is in the file.
Because that is the same thing as the redaction working. Text you can select is text that exists in the file, and text that exists in the file can be recovered. Losing selection on redacted pages is the cost of the words actually being gone.
No. Only the pages you actually marked are rebuilt. Everything else is carried across untouched, with its text still selectable and searchable.
Yes, and you should. Open the result and try selecting the text on a redacted page, or run it through the PDF to Text tool. Nothing from behind a black box should come back.
No. Author names, dates, and the software used sit elsewhere in the file. Run the result through Remove PDF Metadata as well if the document is going outside your organisation.
No. Everything runs inside your browser on your own device. Your file is never sent anywhere, and nothing is stored.
No. Your original PDF stays exactly as it is. The tool creates a new file for you to download.
Yes. It is completely free with no sign-up and no limits.
Continue working with your images and PDF files using these free browser based tools.