Redact PDF — Free
Permanently black out sensitive text and graphics in a PDF. Draw boxes over what needs to be hidden — it's removed for good, not just covered.
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Permanently remove sensitive content from a PDF
Covering text with a black box in a PDF viewer doesn't remove it — the text is often still selectable underneath. The free Redact PDF tool does a true redaction: any page you mark is flattened to a plain image with the box burned in, so the original text and objects are gone for good.
Only touches what you mark
Pages with no redaction boxes are left exactly as they were, with their original selectable text intact.
Private
The PDF is processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded to a server.
Frequently Asked Questions About Redact PDF — Free
Is this a true redaction, or just a black box on top?
It's a true redaction. Any page you draw a box on is flattened to an image with the box burned in, so the underlying text and objects are discarded — they can't be recovered by copy-pasting or extracting text. Pages you don't mark are left untouched.
Will the whole document lose its selectable text?
No — only pages that have at least one redaction box on them are flattened. Any page with no boxes keeps its original, selectable text.
Is it free?
Yes, completely free, and the file is processed in your browser rather than uploaded to a server.