How to redact a PDF
- Drop your PDF.
- Draw a box over each piece of information to hide, or type a word to hide it everywhere.
- Download the redacted PDF: the covered areas are erased for good.
Frequently asked questions
Is the hidden information really erased?
Yes. Unlike a black box simply drawn over the text, each page is redrawn as an image with the covered areas painted in. The original text no longer exists in the file: it cannot be recovered by selecting or copying it.
Why can’t I select the text any more?
That is the price of a safe redaction: the pages become images. If you need the text, keep the original for yourself and only send the redacted version.
How do I hide a bank account number or a name everywhere at once?
Type it in the search box: every occurrence is covered automatically, whatever the spacing or capitalisation. Then check each page, because a scanned document has no readable text.
Is my document uploaded to the internet?
No. Everything happens in your browser: the PDF and its confidential details never leave your device.
More PDF tools
- Merge PDF: Combine several PDFs into one, in the order you want.
- Split PDF: Extract pages or cut a PDF into several files.
- Organize PDF: Reorder, rotate and delete pages at a glance.
- Sign PDF: Draw or type your signature and place it on the document.
- Compress PDF: Shrink a scanned PDF so you can email it.
- Images to PDF: Turn JPG or PNG photos into a single PDF.
- PDF to JPG: Turn every page of a PDF into an image.
- Rotate PDF: Turn sideways or upside-down scanned pages the right way up.
- Delete PDF pages: Remove the pages you don’t need from a PDF.
- Add page numbers: Add “1, 2, 3…” or “Page 1 of 12” to every page.
- Watermark PDF: “Copy”, “Confidential”… stamped across every page.
- Fill in a PDF form: Fields, text and ticks on any PDF form, even a scanned one.
- PDF to text: All the text of a PDF, to copy or download as .txt.
- Compare two PDFs: Words added and removed between two versions of a PDF.