Redact a PDF
Drop a PDF, drag black boxes over anything sensitive, and download a truly redacted copy. Every page is flattened to an image with the boxes painted over, so the content underneath is removed for good. Everything runs in your browser; your file never leaves your device.
How redaction works here
Drawing a black rectangle on top of a PDF in a normal editor only hides the text — the original characters still sit underneath the shape, so anyone can select, copy, or strip the box and read what you meant to hide. This tool does something different. When you click Redact, every page is rendered to an image at print resolution with your boxes painted into the pixels as solid black, and a new PDF is built from those flattened images. The text and graphics that were on the page — both under your boxes and everywhere else — are turned into a flat picture, so nothing recoverable remains beneath the marks.
What you get back
The result is an image-only PDF. Because each page is now a picture, the redacted file is no longer selectable or searchable text, and it is usually larger than the original. That is the deliberate cost of real redaction. The whole process runs in your browser with pdf.js and pdf-lib — nothing is uploaded, stored, or seen by us, and there is no server to send files to.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the redacted text really gone, or just hidden?
- It is really gone. Redacting flattens every page to an image with your black boxes painted directly into the pixels, then rebuilds the PDF from those images. Because the page is now a flat picture, there is no text layer left underneath to copy, search, or recover — unlike drawing a black rectangle in an editor, where the original text still sits under the shape and can be pulled back out.
- What is the trade-off?
- The output is image-only. Since each page becomes a picture, the redacted PDF is no longer selectable or searchable text, and the file is usually larger than the original. That is the honest cost of true redaction: to remove the underlying content for good, the page has to be rasterised.
- Is my file uploaded to a server?
- No. The redaction runs entirely in your browser — pages are rendered and flattened on your own machine with pdf.js and pdf-lib. Your file is never sent anywhere, and there is no server involved.
- Is it free, and do I need an account?
- It is free with no watermarks, no daily caps, and no sign-up. Drop a PDF, draw your boxes, and download the redacted copy.