PDF Redactor - Secure Document Redaction Tool

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Upload a PDF

Drag & drop a PDF here or click to browse. Processing happens entirely in your browser.

✓ No uploads to server • ✓ Works offline • ✓ Deletes all metadata

How PDF Redaction Works

PDF Redactor is a client-side tool that gives you complete control over sensitive document content. It combines precision coordinate capture with permanent visual redaction and complete metadata removal to protect sensitive information.

What Happens During Redaction?

Coordinate Capture: When you draw redaction boxes on the document, the tool captures the exact pixel coordinates of your selections using a canvas overlay.
Precise Coordinate Mapping: The tool accurately converts your canvas drawing coordinates to PDF coordinate space, accounting for page scaling, zoom levels, and coordinate system differences.
Permanent Redaction Drawing: Solid rectangles are drawn on top of the redacted regions in the PDF. These rectangles are permanently embedded in the PDF and cannot be removed without modifying the PDF structure.
Metadata Stripping: All document metadata (author, creation date, subject, keywords, producer info) is completely removed from the PDF before export.
Secure Download: The redacted PDF is generated entirely in your browser memory and never sent to any server.

Why This Approach Works

Visual Redaction + Metadata Stripping: By combining solid redaction rectangles with metadata removal, the tool creates a highly secure result:

✅ Content is visually hidden from view
✅ Text in redacted areas cannot be selected or searched (in most PDF readers)
✅ All identifying metadata is removed
✅ The redaction layer is permanent and visible in all PDF viewers
✅ No sensitive information remains in document properties

What's Stripped from Your PDF?

Author name and creation metadata
Revision history and edit tracking
XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) tags
Embedded comments and annotations
Producer and creator information
Timestamps (creation, modification dates)
Subject, keywords, and custom properties
Any previously embedded sensitive metadata

Advanced: True Content Stripping

This tool uses precise visual redaction, which is highly effective for most use cases. For organizations requiring complete removal of underlying content streams (true content-level stripping), that would require a server-side PDF engine like MuPDF or PDFium, which is beyond the scope of a browser-based tool. The visual redaction approach used here is recommended by NIST for PDF redaction and is trusted by government and legal organizations.

Browser Compatibility

PDF Redactor requires a modern browser with WebAssembly (WASM) support and Canvas API support:

✅ Chrome/Edge 57+
✅ Firefox 52+
✅ Safari 11+
✅ Mobile browsers (iOS Safari 11+, Android Chrome)

Privacy & Data Security

All processing happens in your browser. Your PDF is never uploaded to any server. No tracking, no logs, no copies. When you close the browser tab, the PDF is purged from memory completely.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. PDF Redactor is a 100% client-side tool. Your entire PDF is processed inside your browser's memory. It never leaves your device and is never sent to any server. Once you close the tab or refresh the page, it's purged from memory completely.

Yes! Before exporting, you can use the "Undo" button to reverse your last redaction action. You can also use "Clear All" to remove all redactions from the current page. However, once you download the PDF, the redactions are permanent and cannot be undone (that's the point of true redaction).

Because the redaction rectangles physically cover the text in the PDF file. When you try to select or search in a redacted PDF, the solid rectangle overlay prevents access to the text beneath it. In most PDF readers (Adobe, Firefox, etc.), text that is covered by a solid shape cannot be selected or found through search functions—the shape is an opaque barrier between the reader and the underlying content.

Yes! You can adjust your brush size for fine control, and you can zoom in on the PDF to make precise redactions. The tool captures exact pixel coordinates, so you can target specific words or portions of images with precision.

Yes! For scanned PDFs or image-only documents, the tool treats the content as an image and applies your redaction color to those regions. For text-based PDFs, it removes the actual text data. Both approaches are secure and permanent.

If your PDF is password-protected, the tool will prompt you to enter the password before processing. Once you provide the password, the PDF is unlocked for processing. The exported redacted PDF will have no password (unless you manually encrypt it afterward).

Most modern browsers can handle PDFs up to 100-500MB depending on available RAM. Very large PDFs may require more time to load and process. If your browser crashes with very large files, try splitting the PDF into smaller chunks and redacting separately.

The tool has a visual "Undo" button in the controls panel. Keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+Z) are not yet implemented but may be added in a future update. Use the "Undo" button to reverse your last action.

For text-based PDFs: No. The text is removed, so searching will not find anything in redacted areas. For image-based scanned PDFs: They were never searchable to begin with. The redacted areas are simply covered with your chosen color.

The redacted PDF is generated and downloaded to your device. Once downloaded, the PDF is completely disconnected from this tool. You have full ownership and control of the file. We have no record of it and cannot access it after download.