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Redact PDF
Black out or redact sensitive information from your PDF. Click and drag on the PDF to select areas to redact. Your files are processed in your browser - nothing is uploaded to any server.
Most popular
Edit PDF
Add text, signatures, shapes
Compress PDF
Reduce PDF file size
Convert PDF
To Word, Excel, JPG and more
Merge PDF
Combine multiple PDFs into one
Merge PDF
Combine multiple PDFs into one
Split PDF
Split a PDF into separate files
Organize PDF
Reorder pages by dragging
Extract pages
Pull specific pages out
Extract images
Pull all images out
Delete pages
Remove pages from PDF
Rotate PDF
Rotate pages in any direction
Overlay PDF
Stack one PDF onto another
Compress PDF
Reduce PDF file size
Optimize PDF
Clean up unused data
OCR PDF
Make scanned text searchable
Compare PDF
Spot the differences between two PDFs
Edit PDF
Add text, signatures, shapes
Sign PDF
Add your signature anywhere
Watermark PDF
Add text or image watermark
Add page numbers
Number pages as 1, i or A
Comment PDF
Add sticky-note comments
PDF forms
Ready-to-use forms to fill online
Protect PDF
Add a password
Remove password
Unlock a PDF with its password
Redact PDF
Black out sensitive info
PDF to Word
Editable .docx export
PDF to Excel
Tables as .xlsx
PDF to JPG
Each page as a JPG
PDF to PNG
Each page as a PNG
PDF to WebP
Each page as a WebP
JPG to PDF
Turn JPG images into a PDF
PNG to PDF
Turn PNG images into a PDF
Images to PDF
Combine JPG, PNG, GIF or WebP into one PDF
Word to PDF
Convert .docx to PDF
Excel to PDF
Convert .xlsx to PDF
PowerPoint to PDF
Convert .pptx to PDF
HTML to PDF
Turn an HTML file into a PDF
Website to PDF
Capture a webpage
34 PDF tools in total. Pick a category above or search for one.
No tools match your search. Try a different word.
Redact PDF
Redact PDF files so the words are gone, not hidden
A black rectangle drawn in an ordinary PDF editor sits on top of the page. The words underneath stay in the file, and anyone can select, copy or search them.
Redact PDF works differently. When you download, the boxes are painted onto the pages and each page is saved as a single image, so the covered text no longer exists anywhere in the new file. That makes it a genuine online PDF redaction tool, not only a drawing feature.
Covered but still present text is how redactions fail in practice: court filings and official reports have been published with black bars whose words could simply be copied out from underneath.
In the download
What changes in a redacted PDF
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Boxes burned in
The black box PDF you download has each box burned into solid black pixels in the page image. There is no layer to lift and no object to delete.
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No text layer left
Text anywhere in the document can no longer be selected or searched, not only the parts you covered.
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Hidden extras left out
Author and title details, links, form fields, bookmarks and attachments are not carried into the new file.
How it works
Drawing boxes and downloading the result
The boxes you draw are markers over a preview, not changes to the file. They stay on their page while you move back and forth through the document, and a tap or a very short drag is ignored, so stray touches don't leave marks.
Each time you click Download, the tool starts again from your original file and applies the boxes that are on screen at that moment. Downloading twice never stacks old boxes on new ones, and a box you removed before the next download is really gone from it.
The redacted copy is named after your original, with spaces and special characters turned into underscores. Share creates a link to that same redacted copy, never to the file you opened.
How to
How to black out text in a PDF
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Open your PDF
Click Open PDF and pick the file. Its first page opens, ready for drawing.
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Cover each item
Box every name, number or passage. On a touchscreen, draw with a finger or a pen.
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Work through the pages
Move with the arrows. Undo takes back the last box, and Clear All removes every box on every page.
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Download and check
Click Download, then look through every page of the new file to make sure nothing was missed.
Common uses
Hide sensitive information in a PDF before you share it
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Bank and card numbers
Statements sent as proof of address or income rarely need the full account number.
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ID scans
Cover passport numbers and dates of birth on copies that only need to show your name.
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Names in shared records
Take out the names of clients, patients or colleagues before a document reaches a wider audience.
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Legal disclosure
Black out privileged or unrelated passages before documents go to the other side.
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Research transcripts
Remove participant names and places from interview transcripts before they are shared or published.
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Invoices for third parties
Hide prices or supplier details that the person receiving a copy has no need to see.
Are online PDF tools safe?
Our guide shows which PDF tools upload your file, which keep it in your browser, and which documents need the most care.
Redact PDF questions
Still stuck? Contact us
No. Every box is drawn by hand, so go through each page and cover every place the word appears. Check headers, footers and signature blocks too, where names often repeat.
Yes. A box hides whatever lies beneath it: text, a photo, a signature or a stamp. Draw it a little larger than the item so no edge peeks out.
Yes. A scan is already a picture of the page, and the box is painted into it in the same way.
No, it works on one file at a time. Download the first, then click Open PDF to load the next.
Yes, page for page: the boxes you drew are the only visible change at normal zoom. Zoom far in and you will see the pages are now images rather than crisp type.
Every page is now a detailed image instead of compact text, so a text-heavy PDF usually grows. If it is too large to send, Compress PDF can bring the page images down.
Yes, with Delete Pages, which takes pages out of the document entirely. That beats covering a full page box by box and leaves no black page behind.
No: the redacted file holds page images only, so there is no text left to edit. Make wording changes first, for example in Edit PDF, and redact as the last step.