Redact PDF

Redact PDF hides private details in a PDF for good. You draw black boxes over anything you want gone, or search for words and let the tool box every match for you, with one-tick finders for email addresses, phone numbers, web links and long card or account numbers.

Most "redaction" goes wrong because a black rectangle is simply laid on top of the text. Anyone can copy the words out from under it, or delete the rectangle. This tool doesn’t do that. Every page that has a box is redrawn as a picture with the boxes burnt in, and only that picture goes into the new file, so the covered words no longer exist anywhere in it. Pages without boxes are copied across untouched, with their text still sharp and selectable.

After saving, the tool opens the new file again, reads its text back and tells you whether any of the hidden words can still be found. It suits anyone sharing documents that hold personal details: HR letters, bank statements, legal bundles, medical forms, screenshots of chats. Your file never leaves your device.

1. Tap “Choose a PDF” and pick your file. The first page opens large.
2. To find text, type words or phrases (separated by commas) and tick any of “Email addresses”, “Phone numbers”, “Web links” or “Long numbers”, then press “Mark every match”.
3. Drag across anything else you want hidden. Use “‹ Prev” and “Next ›”, or the page chips, to check every page. Tap × on a box to remove it.
4. Choose a picture quality (150, 200 or 300 dpi) and black or white boxes, and leave “Remove document details” ticked.
5. Press “Redact and save”, read the check under the result, then press “Download redacted PDF”.

• True redaction: boxed pages are rebuilt as pictures, so the covered text is removed, not hidden.
• Search finds every match on every page, including phrases split across lines, with an option to match capital letters exactly.
• Built-in finders for email addresses, phone numbers, web links and card or account numbers.
• Draw boxes by hand with a mouse, pen or finger; remove any box, undo, or clear a page.
• Pages without boxes keep their real text, links and quality.
• Choice of 150, 200 or 300 dpi for redacted pages, and black or white boxes.
• Removes the title, author, subject and keywords stored inside the file, plus bookmarks and attachments.
• Reads the finished file back and reports whether any hidden text can still be found.

• Search only sees real text. Scanned pages are already pictures, so draw boxes over them by hand; the tool tells you when a page has no readable text.
• Boxes from a search have a dashed red edge. Look at each one: they include a small safety margin, but an unusual font can shift them slightly.
• Pages with boxes are pictures afterwards, so their text can’t be selected or searched. Run PDF OCR on the result if you need it searchable again.
• 300 dpi is best for small print and documents that will be printed; 150 dpi keeps the file small for email.
• Form fields on pages without boxes keep their look but can no longer be filled in. Comments there are kept as they are.