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Tools / Sanitise PDF

Sanitise a PDF

Strips the scripts, the hidden files and the actions that fire on open.

Choose a PDF

or drop them here

How it works

  1. Add the PDF.
  2. Choose whether to clear the document properties as well.
  3. Download the cleaned file. It tells you what it found.

When the browser is not enough

scanmydocz for Android

Live edge detection through the camera, text recognition that makes the PDF searchable, a signature you can place, and batch capture. All of it on the phone.

In closed testing. There is no public Play link yet, so there is no button here yet.

scanmydocz Pro

Pro is the paid tier in the Android app. It cannot be bought on the web yet, because checkout is not connected, and we would rather say that than show you a price you cannot pay.

Questions

What can actually be hidden in a PDF?

JavaScript that runs when the file opens; other files embedded whole inside it; automatic actions attached to the document or to individual pages; annotations whose purpose is to launch a program or fetch a remote document; and XFA form code. None of that is needed to display a page, and all of it has been used to attack people.

Will it change how the document looks?

No. The pages are copied through untouched. What is removed is the machinery around them, so the file opens and reads exactly as before.

Do my links still work?

Ordinary links do, yes. A link rectangle is kept and stays clickable if it points at a web address. What is removed is the kind of action that launches a program on your machine or pulls in a remote file, which is not what a reader expects a link to do.

It says nothing was removed. Was it broken?

No. That file simply carried none of these things, which is true of most PDFs. The download has still been rewritten cleanly, so it is safe to use, but the original was already fine.

Does my file leave my device?

Yes. The cleaning is done by qpdf, which is not something a browser has. The file is uploaded, cleaned and deleted 24 hours later.

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