Redact PDF
Draw black boxes over anything sensitive, then flatten every page to an image so the covered text no longer exists in the file. The pages look the same, but the output has no selectable or searchable text — that is what makes the redaction permanent.
How it works
- 1
Draw the areas
Drag on the page to create a box, drag inside it to move, and use the white corner handle to resize.
- 2
Work through the pages
Areas stay on the page where you drew them. Check every page before exporting — the count shows what is left.
- 3
Export the flattened copy
Every page is rasterised at 200 DPI and rebuilt, so the text under the boxes is gone rather than covered.
Your privacy is the point
This tool runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly and Canvas. Your file is never uploaded to a server, never stored and never seen by anyone but you.
Frequently asked questions
Is the text under a black box really gone?+
Yes. Pages are rendered to images at 200 DPI, the boxes are painted into those images, and a new PDF is built from them. There is no text layer left to select, search or recover.
Why can I not search the output any more?+
Because every page is an image, including pages without boxes, so the whole document loses its text layer. That is the trade-off this tool makes so that redaction cannot be undone.
Can I get a redaction that keeps vector text?+
Not honestly in a browser-side tool. PDF text is encoded in glyph runs, fonts and form fields; painting a black rectangle over vector text leaves the text in the file. Rasterising is the only way to guarantee removal here.
Related tools
All toolsEverything runs locally. No uploads, no server-side copies.