Tools / Redact PDF
Redact a PDF
Removes the words. Does not draw a box over them.
- Your file is uploaded to do this
- Deleted 24 hours after processing
- What we do with it
Choose a PDF
or drop them here
How it works
- Add the PDF.
- Tick what to remove, and type any exact words as well.
- Download it, then read it before you send it on.
Removing text rather than hiding it
The common way of redacting, drawing a black rectangle in a viewer, leaves every word underneath selectable and copyable.
A black box is not redaction
This is the mistake that has exposed real documents. The rectangle is drawn over the page; the text stays in the file.
Search for the words as well as ticking the patterns
Patterns catch the obvious shapes. A name or a reference that appears once needs typing in.
Check the whole document afterwards
The same detail often appears in a header, a footer and an appendix, not only where you noticed it.
Select the text in the result and try to copy it
The quickest proof that something has actually gone.
Where this is the wrong tool. This uploads. The file is sent over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers and deleted after 24 hours. Removal is only as complete as what you asked for: read the result before you send it on, because nothing here can know what is sensitive in your document.
When the browser is not enough
Scanly for Android
Take document-scanning workflows to your Android phone with Scanly. See the Google Play listing for current features, requirements and data-processing information.
Questions
Is this different from drawing a black box?
Completely, and the difference is the point. A rectangle drawn in a PDF viewer sits on top of the text; the characters are still in the file and can be selected, copied or read by a script. That is how documents get published with redactions that anyone can undo. Here, every page that contains a match is replaced by an image of that page with the boxes burned in, so the characters are gone rather than hidden.
What does it cost me?
A redacted page stops being selectable text, because it is now a picture. Pages with nothing to remove are left exactly as they were and keep their text. If you need the whole document to stay searchable, redact it and then run the result through PDF OCR.
Can I trust the patterns to find everything?
No, and you should not. A pattern finds what it is shaped to find: it will catch an email address reliably and it cannot know that one name in a paragraph is the one that matters. Use the patterns for the mechanical things, type the specific words yourself, and read the result before you send it anywhere.
Does my file leave my device?
Yes. Rasterising a page and rebuilding the PDF is not something a browser can do to a hundred-page document, so the file is uploaded, processed and deleted 24 hours later. No account is needed and nothing is kept beyond that.
Are the document properties cleared too?
Always, on this tool, whether or not you asked. A redacted document whose author field still names the person being protected has not been redacted.