Drop a PDF here
or click to choose
processed in your browser · never uploaded
Drag across anything you want to hide. On download, each page is flattened to an image with the black boxes burned in — the text underneath is gone for good, so it can't be selected, copied, or recovered.
Drop or click to replace
Redact (black out) the confidential parts of a PDF, completely free. Names, addresses, account numbers, internal figures — just drag a box over anything you don't want shown. When you click download, each page is first rasterized to an image and the black boxes are burned on top, producing a new PDF. That means the text beneath each box no longer exists, so nobody can move the box to reveal what's under it, or select and copy the text to recover it. A black rectangle drawn in PowerPoint or Word, or a markup line added in a viewer, only covers the text visually — the original characters stay inside the file and can be extracted. This tool does true redaction by flattening the page to pixels. To use it, drag and drop a PDF (or click to choose one), then drag across the areas you want to hide on each page. Press "↶" to undo the last box or "✕" to clear a page's boxes. Pick an output resolution from 1.5× to 3× — higher is crisper for printing. Both the on-screen rendering (pdf.js) and the redacted PDF build (pdf-lib) run entirely inside your browser; the PDF is never uploaded, stored, or sent to a server, so it's safe for confidential or personal documents. Note that the output is an image-based PDF, so the text is no longer selectable — that's exactly what prevents recovery. To redact a photo or screenshot, see Redact Image; to strip author and other metadata from a PDF, see Remove PDF Metadata.
How to use
- Drag and drop a PDF. You can also click to choose a file.
- Drag across the parts you want to hide on each page to cover them with black boxes. Use "↶" to undo the last box or "✕" to clear a page.
- Click "Download redacted PDF". Each page is flattened to an image with the boxes burned in, so the text underneath can't be recovered. Your PDF is never sent anywhere.
FAQ
Can the black boxes be removed or the hidden text recovered later?
No. On download, this tool converts each page to an image and burns the black boxes on top, so the character data under each box is destroyed. Nobody can drag the box away to reveal the content, or select and copy the text to recover it. That's the crucial difference from simply drawing a black shape or markup line, which leaves the original text inside the file.
How is this different from putting a black rectangle on it in PowerPoint or Word?
A black shape only hides the text visually — the original characters remain in the PDF and can be copied or extracted with tools. This redactor rasterizes the whole page to pixels before burning in the boxes, so the hidden text physically no longer exists. That's true redaction.
Is the PDF I load uploaded to a server?
No. Both the page rendering (pdf.js) and the redacted-PDF build (pdf-lib) run entirely in your browser with JavaScript. The PDF is never uploaded, stored, or sent to a server, and there's nothing to install, so it's safe for confidential documents or files with personal data.
Is the text in the redacted PDF still selectable or searchable?
No. To redact safely the pages are converted to images, so the output PDF is image-based and its text can't be selected, searched, or copied. This isn't a drawback — it's what guarantees the hidden text can't be recovered. You can still print and submit it normally.
What if I want to remove metadata instead of blacking out content?
To strip a PDF's author, title, and other metadata, use Remove PDF Metadata. To black out or blur information inside a photo or screenshot, use Redact Image.