How to redact a PDF
- Select a PDF, or drop it onto the box above.
- Drag across a page to draw a black box. To hide a name or number everywhere it appears, type it in the search box and choose Box every match. On a phone, turn on Draw boxes first, and turn it off again to scroll.
- Choose Redact and download, then open the file and check each page before you send it.
A black rectangle added with an ordinary shape or highlight tool only covers the text. The words are usually still in the file, so they can be copied out from underneath, or the rectangle can be deleted. Here, every page with a box is redrawn as an image with the box burnt in, so there’s no text left under it to copy.
The tool can’t tell you what needs to be hidden, or whether the result meets a court, agency or privacy requirement that applies to your document. Check both before you send it.
Your files stay on your device
A document that needs redacting is usually one you’d rather not hand to a stranger’s server, so this tool runs in your browser. The PDF and the redacted copy stay on your computer or phone, and Oppermind never receives them. The page itself uses cookies, and analytics only if you allow them, as set out in our privacy policy.
Questions
What happens to a page I redact?
The page is turned into an image with the black boxes painted on, then put back in the PDF at the same size. Nothing is left under a box to copy out. Because the whole page is now a picture, the rest of its text can’t be selected or searched any more either.
Does the search find every match?
It finds text in the PDF’s text layer and boxes each match, but it can’t read scanned pages or text inside pictures, and the box size is an estimate. Open the downloaded file and check every page before you share it. Draw a box by hand wherever something was missed.
What else is removed from the file?
The download is a new PDF. Bookmarks, form fields, comments, attachments and document details such as the author and title aren’t carried into it. Pages you didn’t mark keep their text and their links to websites.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Your browser reads the PDF and builds the redacted copy on your own device. Oppermind’s servers never receive it.
Can I redact a password-protected PDF?
Not here. Open it with the password, save a copy without one, then redact that copy.