Redact PDF Online — Black Out Sensitive Text Permanently

Redact PDF

Sending a contract, CV or medical record and need to hide ID numbers, phone numbers or amounts? A black rectangle on top isn't enough — the text underneath can still be copied. Here redacted pages become images with the black painted in, so the covered content is really gone.

Runs in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded

Choose file

or drop a file here

Many tools only draw a black rectangle on top, and the text underneath can still be copied. Here every page with a box is turned into an image with the black areas painted in, so the covered text is really gone; title, author and other document information are cleared too. Pages without boxes stay as they were.

Your PDF is processed in your browser and never uploaded.

How to use

Choose a PDF; its pages are shown one by one.
Drag on a page to draw a black box, or type words in Find text to black out and click Find and mark.
Check the boxes on each page and click the download button.

Options explained

Why pages are rasterised: Text in a PDF is separate data that a box drawn on top cannot hide from copying or search. Once the page is an image, the covered text no longer exists.
Search accuracy: Positions are estimated from the text layer; bold or unusual fonts may be slightly off, so check each page. Scans have no text layer, so draw boxes by hand.

What the redacted file contains

Every page that has at least one box is drawn to an image at the Quality you choose (150, 200 or 300 DPI, starting at 200), the black boxes are painted into the image, and the image is saved as a JPEG at 85% quality and placed on a new page of the same size. Pages without boxes are copied unchanged, text included, unless you tick Turn every page into an image (safest). The title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer, dates and XMP metadata of the new file are cleared.

Pixel size is the page size in points divided by 72 and multiplied by the DPI, so higher quality means a sharper but larger file.

Page size	150 DPI	200 DPI	300 DPI
A4 (595 × 842 pt)	about 1240 × 1754	about 1654 × 2339	about 2480 × 3508
US Letter (612 × 792 pt)	1275 × 1650	1700 × 2200	2550 × 3300

Because the result is a picture, the text on redacted pages can no longer be searched or selected, even where it is not covered. To mark several words at once, type them in Find text to black out separated by commas and click Find and mark; the boxes it adds can be checked and removed one by one before you download.

Frequently asked questions

Do pages without boxes change?

No, they stay as they were with selectable text. Tick Turn every page into an image for maximum safety.

What other information remains?

Title, author and producer are cleared. Attachments or form fields may remain on untouched pages, so turn every page into an image for sensitive files.

Is my file uploaded?

No. Everything happens in your browser.

Privacy

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files and text are processed on your device and are never uploaded to our servers.