Redact PDF content before sharing
This category currently contains one tool, Redact PDF. It accepts one PDF document at a time and can permanently remove selected text, search matches, drawn regions, or whole pages. The choice of method depends on whether the information has a usable text layer and whether you need to target a precise area or an entire page.
Choose the redaction method that matches the PDF
Open Redact PDF and choose the targeting method that fits the document:
- Draw region marks a custom area, such as content on a scanned or image-only page.
- Select text targets text touched by your selection.
- Find matches searches the document for a literal, case-insensitive text match.
- Redact entire page creates a full-page target.
Select text and Find matches require extractable PDF text. Scanned or image-only pages may produce no target with those controls, so use Draw region or Redact entire page when the page has no usable text layer.
Review every target before applying redaction
Each new target enters a review queue rather than being removed immediately. Review the listed targets, confirm them individually, or use Confirm all when the list is correct. You can clear the targets and start again. The Apply control stays disabled until every target is confirmed.
Applying redaction is irreversible. The tool rebuilds affected pages as images, paints the selected areas black, and replaces the original page object, including its text and vector content. There is no undo after applying, so review the target locations and search matches carefully first.
Check the output and understand the limits
After applying redaction, the tool reopens the generated PDF and runs mechanical verification checks. The report includes checks related to extractable text on redacted pages, searched terms, annotations, and optional metadata or XMP removal. The optional cleanup setting removes standard document metadata, embedded XMP metadata, and annotations across the document; creation and modification dates are reset rather than removed.
Review the resulting PDF and report yourself because these checks do not establish legal or regulatory sufficiency. Affected pages lose text selection by design, and rasterizing them can increase file size. The tool accepts PDF input only, one document at a time, and enforces a maximum of 1,000 pages. For the complete workflow, download and inspect the redacted PDF with Redact PDF.