Redact PDF: black out text and images

Not from under the boxes. Each page you black out is saved as an image of itself with the boxes painted in, and the page’s original text, images, links and form fields are removed from the file. The text on that page can then no longer be selected, copied or searched, and the file usually gets larger. Pages without boxes stay as they were. Check the saved PDF before you share it.

Anything that could repeat what you blacked out: the document’s metadata (title, author and similar), bookmarks, attached files, scripts, the accessibility tags that hold alternative text, and earlier versions kept inside the file. Comments on the pages you did not black out stay, so check them too.

It suggests My Numbers, payment card numbers, ID numbers of China, Taiwan and Korea (each checked by its check digit or birth date), Japanese residence card numbers, IBANs, phone numbers, email and IP addresses, amounts with a currency sign or word, and US Social Security numbers, and it finds any text you type, such as a name. It does not guess names on its own, and it cannot read scanned pages, which hold only a picture of the text. Nothing is blacked out until you choose it. It can miss things, so check every page.

No. PDFs with a password are not supported, including those that only restrict printing or copying: rewriting them would remove the protection. Remove the password in your PDF app first, then redact that copy.

No. Everything runs in your browser, so your files never leave your device. The page only downloads the tool's own code when you add the first file.