What is it?
Redact PDF blacks out sensitive information for real. Drawing a black rectangle in an ordinary PDF editor only covers text, and anyone can copy it out from underneath. Here, redacted pages are turned into pictures of exactly what you see, so nothing hidden is left to recover.
Who is it for?
Anyone sharing documents with private details: bank statements for a loan, ID copies, legal papers, HR files, medical reports, or screenshots of chats that include phone numbers.
How to use it
- Choose a PDF. Move between pages with ‹ Previous and Next ›.
- Drag on the page to black out an area, or use Find and mark words: type names or numbers (e.g.
Ravi Kumar, 98765 43210) or tick emails, phone numbers or numbers, then Find and mark. - Check every page (Clear this page removes marks there), choose the Quality, then tap Redact and save.
Check before sharing
- Go through every page; search only finds text the PDF really contains.
- Remember names in headers, footers, signatures and photos.
- Also clear the file’s hidden info (author, title) with Edit PDF Metadata.
Example: statement for a rent application
Tick numbers, then unmark the salary credits you want to show: account numbers, other transactions and balances are hidden, while the landlord still sees your income.
The PDF is opened and changed inside your browser; it is never uploaded. Close the page and it is gone.
Errors and how to fix them
- “Mark something to black out first”: no area is marked yet.
- “Type words to find, or tick emails, phone numbers or numbers”: the search box is empty.
- Search doesn’t find text on a scanned page: scans are pictures; draw boxes on them by hand.
- Text can’t be selected afterwards: expected on redacted pages; that’s how the hidden text is destroyed.
Open the tool: Redact PDF
Still stuck?
Contact support. Tell us which tool or page you were using, what you tapped, what you saw, and your phone or computer and browser (for example: Android phone, Chrome). We reply by email.
Questions, or an error not listed here?
Tell us in the comments: what you were doing, the exact message you saw, and your device and browser. We read every comment and add new fixes to this article.