Redact PDF
BetaBlack out text and images in a PDF and remove what is under them, so redacted content cannot be copied back out.
How to redact a PDF
- Choose the PDF.
- Drag a box over anything you want removed, or search for a word and mark every match.
- Optionally run Find private data and tick the suggestions you want covered.
- Go through the marked pages and remove any mark that is wrong.
- Press Redact PDF and download the redacted copy.
Options
- Draw and Select
- Draw lets you drag boxes on the page. Select lets you click a mark to review it, move to it or delete it.
- Find text
- Enter a word or phrase and press Mark matches to mark it everywhere in the document. Matches can include nearby text, so look at each box.
- Find private data
- Suggests payment card numbers, IBANs, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, US SSN, ITIN and EIN numbers, and UK National Insurance numbers. Each suggestion shows whether it passed a checksum, has a label nearby or only matches the pattern.
- Phone number country
- A two-letter country code adds that country's national phone formats to the suggestions. Leave it empty for international numbers only.
- Add by coordinates
- Place a box by X, Y, width and height in PDF points, measured from the page's lower-left corner. A drawn box can be adjusted the same way.
- Undo, Redo and Clear all marks
- Step back and forward through your marks, clear one page, or clear them all.
What you get
- One PDF named after the original with "(redacted)" added.
- Every page is rebuilt as a 150 dpi image, with marked areas filled solid black. The text under a mark is gone, not hidden.
- Unmarked pages are rebuilt the same way, so the whole file loses selectable text, form fields, links, comments and accessibility structure.
- The page count stays the same.
Limits
- One PDF at a time.
- Find text takes up to 1,000 characters and marks up to 2,000 matches.
- Suggestions can miss private data and can include nearby text. Check every page yourself.
- Pages without readable text, such as scans, cannot be searched. Draw boxes over them.
- The output is not searchable. Run Make PDF searchable afterwards if you need text, knowing it will only find what is still visible.
Check the result
Open the download and try to select or search for a redacted word. It should not be found. Deckle checks that each marked value cannot be extracted from the new file and that every box is fully opaque.
Questions
Is the redaction permanent?
Yes. Pages are redrawn as images with the black boxes painted in, so the original text under them is not in the new file.
Why is my whole document now an image?
Rebuilding every page closes a gap: shared images and fonts on unmarked pages can carry the same value. The cost is that text is no longer selectable on any page.
Can I redact a scanned PDF?
Yes, by drawing boxes. Search and suggestions need a text layer, so they cannot read scanned pages.
Does Find private data catch everything?
No. It finds common number and address patterns. Names, addresses and anything unusual need to be marked by hand.
Is the PDF uploaded?
No. Searching, suggestions and redaction all run in your browser.
Can I undo a redaction?
Before you press the button, yes: Undo, Redo and Clear all marks. After saving, the redacted copy cannot be reversed, but your original stays unchanged.