🔒 Redact PDF

Permanently remove sensitive text and images from your PDF. Draw redaction boxes or search & auto-redact text — then flatten to make it irreversible.

Select or drop your PDF file here

or

document.pdf

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Flatten mode permanently removes the text underneath — it cannot be recovered or undone. Always keep a backup of the original file.
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Your PDF never leaves your browser. 100% private and secure.

How to Redact a PDF

1

Upload PDF

Drop your PDF above or click to browse. Your file never leaves your device.

2

Mark Sensitive Areas

Draw boxes over sensitive content, or use Find Text to auto-redact every match.

3

Apply & Download

Choose True Redact (secure) and click Apply. The text is permanently destroyed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between True Redact and Quick Overlay?

True Redact rasterizes each page that has a redaction — the page is rendered to a high-resolution image, the redaction boxes are burned into the pixels, and the original page (with its selectable text) is replaced. The text underneath is permanently gone — you cannot copy, search, or recover it.

Quick Overlay simply draws black rectangles on top of the page. It looks redacted, but the original text is still there — anyone with a text extraction tool can recover it.

Can the redacted text be recovered?

In True Redact mode: no. The original text bytes are stripped from the file entirely. In Quick Overlay mode: yes, trivially — select-all + copy reveals everything.

How does "Find Text" redaction work?

Type the text you want to redact (e.g. an email address, account number, or name), choose whether to search the current page or all pages, and click Redact. The tool finds every exact match in the PDF's text layer and automatically draws a redaction box over each one.

Can I redact scanned PDFs?

Yes, but only with the Draw Box mode — scanned PDFs don't have a text layer, so "Find Text" won't work on them. Use Draw Box to manually cover the areas you want hidden.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. Everything — preview rendering, text search, and redaction — happens entirely in your browser using pdf.js and pdf-lib.

Redacted PDF Ready!

Your redacted PDF has been downloaded.

Done!