Redact PDF
Cover up the parts of a PDF nobody else should see. The text underneath is destroyed rather than hidden, so it cannot be copied back out. Your file never leaves this device.
Drop a PDF here
Your file stays on this device. Nothing is uploaded.
How to redact a PDF
- Drop the PDF onto the box above, or press “Choose a PDF file”.
- Drag across anything you want hidden to draw a black box over it, or press “+ Add a box”. Use the page strip to move between pages.
- Move or resize the boxes until everything private is covered. ✕ removes a box.
- Press “Redact & download”. The text under each box is destroyed, not just hidden.
What Redact PDF does
Redacting means removing information from a document before you share it: a name, an address, a bank account, a salary. The trap is that hiding it and removing it look identical on screen: a black box drawn in most PDF editors still has the original text sitting underneath, ready to be copied straight back out.
What it does
- Destroys the covered content by rebuilding the marked page as a flat image with those areas painted out
- Leaves pages you did not mark untouched, so they keep their selectable text
- Works the same on scans, which are already images
What it does not do
- Merely cover things up; the text under a box on a marked page no longer exists in the file
- Clean document metadata, attachments or comments, which are worth checking separately
- Keep the text layer on a page you redact, which is the deliberate cost of making the removal real
Last updated
Need to send this to someone?
Our sister site QRSansar hosts a document and gives you a short link and a QR code for it. That is handy for WhatsApp, a slide, a poster or a printed handout, and it avoids attachment size limits entirely. You can swap the file later and the link and QR code keep working.
Worth being clear about the difference: that is a hosting service, so your file is uploaded to it. Everything on PDFsansar stays on your device; sharing is the one job that cannot.
Share a document on QRSansar →Other tools
All free, and all run in this tab without uploading anything.
Redact PDF: common questions
Is the text really removed, or just covered?
Really removed. Any page you mark is redrawn as a flat image with the marked areas painted out, and the original text layer for that page is discarded. There is nothing underneath to select, copy or search.
Why is that worth caring about?
Because the usual approach is not safe. Drawing a black rectangle in a PDF editor leaves the text sitting in the file underneath it. Select the area, paste it elsewhere, and it reappears. Governments and law firms have leaked names this exact way, more than once.
What happens to the pages I did not mark?
They are copied across untouched and keep their selectable text. Only the pages carrying a box become images, so you lose as little as possible.
Does redacting remove metadata too?
No. This covers what is visible on the page. Document properties, and anything hidden in attachments or comments, are not touched. They are worth checking separately if the file is going somewhere sensitive.
Can I redact a scanned document?
Yes, and it works the same way. A scan is already an image, so marking areas on it paints over the pixels for good.