Redact PDF
Load the PDF, drag over the areas you want covered with a mouse or a finger, and get back a document where the covered content no longer exists in the file. This is not a black rectangle on top: the marked pages are rebuilt from the image, so there is no text underneath for anyone to copy. All processing runs in your browser.
Three steps, nothing to install.
The whole job happens on your computer, start to finish.
Choose the file
Drag the PDF into the tool window, or click to pick it.
Mark the areas
Drag over what you want covered, on each page. There is also a button to cover a whole page.
Download
Get the PDF with the areas blacked out and the content underneath removed.
Why is a black rectangle not enough?
Because in a PDF the rectangle is just one more object drawn on top. The text it covers is still in the file, exactly where it was, and comes out with Ctrl+A or with any text extractor. That is how real, public leaks happened in court and government documents: the screen showed black, the file held everything.
So what does this tool do differently?
It draws the page as it is seen, paints opaque rectangles over that drawing, and rebuilds the page from the resulting image. The page has no text because it has no text layer at all: there is nothing underneath to recover.
Does it rasterise the whole document?
No. Only the pages where you marked something. Mark two lines on page 3 of a forty page contract and the other thirty nine stay as text: searchable, selectable and light. At the end, the tool tells you which pages were converted.
What about metadata?
It is cleared in the output file: title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer. A redacted document that still carries the original title and author is not redacted.
The redacted page can no longer be searched.
That is expected, not a fault: that page became an image. If you need to search the document after redacting, search the original first, or keep both versions.
The file came out bigger than the original.
A page as an image takes more space than the same page as text. You can pick a lower image quality in the form, which reduces size at the cost of sharpness. Unmarked pages do not grow.
The tool refuses because I marked nothing.
A run with no marks would return a document with the whole conversion cost and nothing covered, which is the worst possible outcome. Mark at least one area.
The document has too many pages to draw them all.
Above sixty pages, drawing each one at reading size would use too much memory in the tab. Split the document first with the Split and extract tool, then redact the part that matters.
I marked an area and still see the text in the preview.
The preview shows the mark slightly translucent on purpose, so you can confirm you covered the right spot. In the final file the rectangle is opaque black and what was underneath is gone.
Questions about redacting a PDF.
Do I need an account to redact?
Yes. The account (magic link, no password) is needed for the subscription. This tool is part of the Premium subscription, EUR 1.99 a month, which removes the limits on every tool and adds OCR. Sign PDF opens on the free plan, with one signature a day.
Can what was covered be recovered?
Not from the output file, and that is the point. Keep the original if you still need it: we keep nothing, because nothing is sent.
Does it also erase hidden text on other pages?
No. It only touches the pages you mark. Hidden text, comments or layers on other pages stay as they were.
Does it clear XMP metadata too?
No. It clears the document property fields (title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer). Some programs write a parallel XMP block that this tool does not remove, and saying so is more honest than promising a full wipe.
Are my files kept on your servers?
No. Since nothing is sent, nothing is kept outside your browser.
Need it covered,
and to stay covered?
Open the tool and try it. Nothing to install, nothing sent anywhere.
Open Redact