Redact PDF

1. Use Drop a PDF file here, or click browse file. It accepts one .pdf document.
2. Choose Draw region, Select text, or type a term in Find text matches. Use Redact entire page for a full page.
3. Check the target list. Confirm targets, use Confirm all, or use Clear all.
4. To remove document details and annotations, enable Also remove document metadata (title, author, producer, XMP) and hidden/leftover annotations across the whole document.
5. Click Review and confirm redaction, then select Continue and redact.
6. Read Verification report, then select Download redacted PDF or Download report.

PDF redaction methods and text matching

Draw region records the rectangle you drag. Select text uses touched extractable text and creates a target around the intersecting items. Find text matches searches extracted page text without regard to case and creates a target for each match. Redact entire page marks the full page.

Select text and Find text matches need extractable text. A scanned or image-only page can produce no target with them, so use Draw region or Redact entire page. PDFs can have up to 1,000 pages. Other file types, unreadable PDFs, and larger PDFs show an error.

What PDF redaction changes and checks

Redact PDF leaves source pages untouched while you select and review. The button stays disabled until all targets are confirmed. After Continue and redact, each affected page is rendered, selected areas are painted black, and the original page object is replaced by an image-only page. Its text and vector content are removed.

Pages without targets keep their text and vector content. Redaction has no undo. Rasterized pages can be larger and lose selectable text.

Remove PDF metadata and annotations

The setting starts off. When enabled, it clears the standard title, author, subject, keywords, creator, and producer fields, removes the embedded XMP metadata stream, and deletes annotations across the whole document.

Title, Author, Producer, XMP, annotations
After: cleared, cleared, cleared, removed, deleted

When enabled, creation and modification dates are set to the Unix epoch. The report does not inspect them.

Find text matches shows an error when it finds no matches. The report reopens the generated PDF and checks affected pages for extractable text and leftover annotations. For search targets, it checks that terms no longer appear in the document. With metadata removal enabled, it also checks standard Info fields, XMP, and annotations across the document. Each check includes pass or fail details.

Review the PDF and report yourself. These checks do not make a legal or regulatory determination.

Choose a method for the page content

• For selectable text, use Select text, confirm the target, and continue through the confirmation panel.
• For a repeated term, use Find text matches, confirm the generated targets, and check the term in the report.
• For a scanned page without an extractable text layer, use Draw region or Redact entire page.

When to use PDF Redact Tools

Use Redact PDF when selected content must be permanently removed and checked in a verification report. The parent PDF Redact Tools category covers the site's PDF redaction pages. The file is read, rendered, and rebuilt in the browser. The page code makes no request that sends its contents to a server.

Frequently asked questions