Redact PDF
Properly redact a PDF, not just paint over it. Draw black boxes over anything sensitive, and instead of drawing on top of the PDF's existing text (which leaves the original text underneath, extractable by copy-paste or a script), this tool renders every page to an image first, bakes your black boxes directly into those images, and rebuilds an entirely new PDF from the flattened pages. The result: the covered content has no underlying text or data anywhere in the file. The honest tradeoff is that the output PDF is no longer text-selectable or searchable — that's the price of redaction that actually works.
- Free — no sign-up
- Private — runs in your browser
- Instant results
How to use the Redact PDF
- 1Upload your PDF. Select the document with content you need to redact.
- 2Draw redaction boxes. Click and drag over sensitive text or images on each page.
- 3Redact and download. Rebuild the PDF from flattened pages and download the redacted file.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I just draw a black box over the text?
Drawing a shape on top of existing PDF text doesn't remove the text underneath — it's still there in the file and can be extracted by copy-pasting or with a simple script. This tool avoids that by rebuilding the whole PDF from flattened page images, so there's no hidden text left behind anywhere.
Will the redacted PDF still have selectable text?
No — none of it will, not just the redacted parts. Every page becomes a flattened image. That's a deliberate tradeoff for genuine, verifiable redaction.
Is my file uploaded to a server?
No. Rendering, redacting, and rebuilding all happen in your browser — your document never leaves your device.
Learn more
Why most PDF editing is really markup on top of the page, what you can add, and a simple workflow for annotating a document quickly.
Why drawing a black box over PDF text doesn't remove it, and what a correct, flatten-and-rebuild redaction process actually requires.
How text-based PDF comparison works, how to read an inline word diff, and where a text-only comparison falls short of a visual diff.