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Redact Sensitive Info From a PDF Before You Share It

Drawing a black box over text in a general-purpose editor often isn't real redaction — if the underlying text layer survives underneath, it can sometimes still be selected or recovered. PDF Redactor is built specifically to remove the covered content permanently: once a redaction is applied, it cannot be recovered, by design, not just visually hidden.

Everything runs locally in your browser — the PDF is not sent to a server to apply a redaction. In-progress work is also saved locally via your browser's IndexedDB storage so you don't lose marked redactions if the tab closes unexpectedly, and that recovery data never leaves your device either.

Because redactions are genuinely permanent, mark your redaction areas carefully and review them before applying — there's no undo once a redaction is committed to the downloaded file. Keep your unredacted original stored separately in case you need to reference it later; only the shared copy should have the redactions applied.

How to handle this workflow

1. Open the tool

Launch the PDF Redactor and load your document. No account creation or software installation is required.

2. Process in your browser

Select your preferred settings. Core processing runs on your device, keeping your documents confidential and private.

3. Preview and download

Inspect the output to confirm page quality and formatting, then save your updated PDF directly to your device.

Can a PDF redaction be undone?

No — PDF Redactor is built so that once a redaction is applied, it cannot be recovered. Review your redaction areas carefully before applying them, and keep the unredacted original stored separately.

Ready to try it?

Place opaque cover boxes over selected PDF areas

Redact a PDF free →