# Redact PDF > Permanently black out sensitive text and images in a PDF, right in your browser. Draw redaction boxes by hand or auto-find emails, phone numbers, card and ID numbers, then export with the hidden content truly removed (not just visually covered) thanks to secure page-flattening. No upload, no signup, no watermark, 100% private. Redact PDF lets you permanently black out confidential text and images in a PDF without installing Acrobat or uploading a single byte. Draw redaction boxes over any area, or use Find & Redact to auto-mark every email, phone number, ID or custom phrase across the whole document. Its Secure Flatten mode rebuilds each page as a flat image, so the hidden words are truly deleted from the file, not merely covered by a black rectangle that can be copied out later. Because everything runs on your device, it's genuinely safe for contracts, bank statements, medical records and legal discovery. - **Live tool:** https://www.toolnova.org/pdf-tools/redact-pdf - **Category:** PDF Tools (https://www.toolnova.org/pdf-tools) - **Price:** Free - **Requirements:** Runs in a modern web browser · No signup · No install ## What this tool does - Draw redaction boxes over any area on any page by clicking and dragging - Find & redact: auto-mark every match of a word, phrase or regex across all pages - One-click patterns for emails, phone numbers, SSN/ID, card numbers and IP addresses - Secure flatten mode rebuilds each page as an image so redacted text is genuinely gone - Quick-cover mode for fast visual redaction when a text layer is fine - Optional metadata scrub (author, title, producer) on export - Black, dark-slate or white redaction fill - 100% client-side: your PDF never leaves your device ## How to use Redact PDF 1. **Open your PDF** — Drag a PDF onto the drop zone or click to browse. It's read locally in your browser, nothing is uploaded to a server. 2. **Mark what to hide** — Click and drag across the page to draw a redaction box, add as many as you like on any page. Or use Find & Redact to type a word/phrase (or a regex) and auto-mark every match, and tap the presets to sweep for emails, phone numbers, SSN/ID, card numbers or IPs. 3. **Choose a redaction mode** — Keep Secure Flatten on (recommended) so each page is rebuilt as an image and the underlying text is permanently removed. Switch to Quick Cover for a faster visual-only blackout. Optionally strip document metadata too. 4. **Download the redacted PDF** — Export and your redacted PDF downloads instantly, with no watermark, no signup and no file leaving your device. ## Common use cases - Remove client names, account numbers and balances from a bank statement before sharing it. - Redact personal data (emails, phone numbers, addresses) from documents for GDPR/CCPA compliance. - Black out confidential clauses or pricing in a contract before sending it to a third party. - Prepare legal discovery or FOIA documents with privileged content permanently removed. - Hide patient details on medical records or insurance forms. - Scrub sensitive information from a resume, invoice or ID scan before uploading it somewhere. ## About ### Real redaction removes the text — it doesn't just cover it The most common redaction mistake is drawing a black rectangle over text in a regular editor and thinking the information is gone. It isn't: the words still live in the file underneath the box and can be copied straight out or revealed by deleting the shape, a mistake that has leaked court filings, government reports and corporate contracts. This tool's default Secure Flatten mode avoids that trap entirely. It renders each page to a high-resolution bitmap, burns the black boxes onto that image, and rebuilds the PDF from the flattened images, so there is no text layer left beneath a redaction to recover. What you black out is genuinely deleted from the document. ### Draw boxes or auto-find sensitive data For visual redaction, just click and drag across any part of any page to cover it, and stack as many boxes as you need. For structured data, Find & Redact scans the PDF's text layer and automatically marks every occurrence of a term, a phrase, or a regular expression across all pages at once, so you don't have to hunt page by page. One-tap presets sweep the whole document for common personal data patterns, email addresses, phone numbers, Social-Security-style IDs, payment-card numbers and IP addresses, and drop redaction boxes over each match for you to review before exporting. ### Built for privacy — nothing is uploaded Redaction is something you do specifically because a document is sensitive, so uploading it to a stranger's server to be redacted is exactly backwards. Every step here, reading the PDF, rendering pages, finding matches, flattening and saving, happens inside your browser tab using pdf.js and pdf-lib. Your file never touches a network, which makes the tool safe for the confidential material redaction exists to protect: legal, financial, medical and identity documents. You can even use it offline once the page has loaded. As an extra layer, an optional metadata scrub clears the author, title and producer fields that can quietly reveal who made a document. ## FAQ ### Does this permanently remove the redacted text, or just cover it? With Secure Flatten (the default) it permanently removes it. Each page is rebuilt as a flattened image with the black boxes burned in, so there is no hidden text layer left underneath to copy or recover. Quick Cover mode only draws opaque boxes over the original text, which is faster but leaves the covered text in the file, use Secure Flatten for anything truly confidential. ### Is my PDF uploaded to a server? No. Everything runs entirely in your browser using pdf.js and pdf-lib. Your document is never uploaded, stored or transmitted, which is essential for the sensitive files redaction is meant for. ### Can it automatically find and redact emails or phone numbers? Yes. Open Find & Redact, type a word, phrase or regular expression to match, or tap a preset for emails, phone numbers, SSN/ID, card numbers or IP addresses, and the tool scans every page's text and auto-marks each match for you to review before exporting. ### Is it free and watermark-free? Yes, completely free with no signup, no email, no daily limit and no watermark on the exported PDF. ### Can I redact a scanned PDF (just an image)? You can draw redaction boxes over any area of a scanned PDF and export it securely flattened. Automatic Find & Redact needs a real text layer, so it won't detect words inside a pure scan, but manual boxes work perfectly for image-only pages. ### Will the redacted file still open everywhere? Yes. The export is a standard PDF. In Secure Flatten mode the pages become images inside a normal PDF, so it opens in any PDF reader while guaranteeing the redacted content is gone. --- ToolNova — free, privacy-first browser tools. Most tools process data locally on your device. See https://www.toolnova.org/llms.txt for the full directory.