Redact PDF online — search-based, free
Type names or sensitive terms, we black them out everywhere. Visual redaction (not cryptographic — see FAQ).
Sharing a contract for review but want to hide the parties' names? Posting a screenshot of a financial doc but need to scrub account numbers? Type the terms, we find every match and cover with opaque black bars across the document.
Important: this is **visual** redaction, not cryptographic. The underlying bytes still contain the redacted text. For court-grade redaction, see the FAQ — we'll tell you when our tool is right and when it isn't.
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Frequently asked questions
Is this legally-defensible redaction?
No — this is visual redaction. The black bars cover the text on screen, but the underlying bytes are still in the PDF. A determined attacker with a hex editor can recover them. For court submissions, FOIA, classified material, use a tool that removes the text from the content stream itself (Acrobat Pro Redaction, veraPDF, etc.).
When is this tool the right choice?
Casual sharing where you don't want a viewer to see redacted text — sharing screenshots, emailing internal docs to limited-scope contractors, anonymizing case studies. Not for legally-binding redaction.