[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":202},["ShallowReactive",2],{"tool-content-redactPdf-en":3,"editor-messages-redactPdf-en":90},{"metaTitle":4,"metaDescription":5,"h1":6,"intro":7,"howToSteps":8,"howToTitle":21,"faq":22,"faqTitle":47,"benefits":48,"useCases":73,"useCasesTitle":83,"relatedToolsTitle":84,"relatedReasons":85},"Redact PDF Free: Black Out Text, No Upload | Visual PDF","Redact a contract, medical record or bank statement free. What you mark is deleted from the PDF, not just covered, and the file never leaves your browser.","Redact PDF","Redacting a PDF here means deleting the text, numbers or images you mark from the file itself, with a black box left in their place. The file is checked before download to confirm nothing under a box is still readable, so a contract, a medical record or a bank statement can be redacted without ever being uploaded.",[9,12,15,18],{"title":10,"content":11},"Open your PDF","Drop your PDF into the box or pick it from your device. It opens straight in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.",{"title":13,"content":14},"Mark what has to go","Drag over text to black it out, or draw a box anywhere on the page. On a phone, press and hold to draw.",{"title":16,"content":17},"Or find what has to go","Use \"Search the document\" or a preset (\"Emails\", \"Phone numbers\", \"Card numbers\", \"IBANs\") to find every match at once. Tick what has to go, then press \"Confirm\".",{"title":19,"content":20},"Check, then download","Review the \"Marked areas\" list, or press \"Reset\" to start over. When it looks right, press \"Finish\", then \"Download\".","How to redact a PDF",[23,26,29,32,35,38,41,44],{"q":24,"a":25},"Can redacted text in a PDF be uncovered?","Not from a file redacted here. The text under the black box is deleted from the file, not hidden behind it, and the finished file is read back before you get it to confirm nothing is still readable. A black rectangle drawn over text in an ordinary editor is different: the words often stay in the file underneath, where anyone can select and copy them. That is the classic mistake this tool avoids.",{"q":27,"a":28},"How do I black out text in a PDF?","Open your PDF, then drag over the text you want to hide to black it out, or draw a box anywhere on the page. You can also use \"Search the document\" or a preset to find every email address, phone number and card number at once. Tick what has to go, press \"Confirm\", then \"Finish\" and \"Download\".",{"q":30,"a":31},"Can I redact a PDF for free, without paid software?","Yes. This free redaction tool runs in your browser, so there is no software to buy or install and no account to create. Open your PDF, mark what has to go, and download the redacted copy with no watermark added. Because the work happens on your device, there is no upload and no file size to wait on.",{"q":33,"a":34},"Is it safe to redact a confidential file here?","Your file is processed in your browser and never leaves your device. It is not uploaded, stored or scanned, so even a file you are not allowed to upload stays on your machine. You can check it yourself: open your browser's network tab while you work and you will see no file being sent anywhere.",{"q":36,"a":37},"Can it find every email or card number for me?","Yes. The presets and search run across the whole document's text layer, so they find every email address, phone number, card number and IBAN at once. Each match is listed for you to review before any of it turns black. On a scanned PDF there is no text layer to search, so you draw the boxes over the text yourself.",{"q":39,"a":40},"Does it work on a scanned PDF, on a Mac or on my phone?","Yes. It runs in the browser on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, with nothing to install. A scanned PDF works too: pages that cannot be cut exactly are redrawn as an image with the black boxes painted in, so the text on those pages is no longer selectable. On a scan you draw the boxes by hand.",{"q":42,"a":43},"What else does it remove?","Besides the marked text and images, it removes the document's metadata (title, author, dates), thumbnails, attachments and any earlier saved versions. A digital signature is removed too, because redaction changes the document. Bookmarks are kept, and their titles can contain text, so it is worth checking them.",{"q":45,"a":46},"Can I remove a whole page?","Yes. If an entire page has to go rather than a few lines, use the Remove PDF pages tool to delete it outright. For anything short of a full page, mark it here and keep the rest.","Frequently asked questions",[49,53,57,61,65,69],{"title":50,"content":51,"icon":52},"Removed, not just covered","Drawing a black rectangle over text in most editors leaves the words in the file, where anyone can select and copy them. Here the text under the box is deleted from the file, so copy, paste and search find nothing.","i-hugeicons-clean",{"title":54,"content":55,"icon":56},"Checked before you download","The finished file is read back before you get it. If anything is still readable under a black area, you get an error instead of a file, not a document that leaks what you meant to hide.","i-hugeicons-document-validation",{"title":58,"content":59,"icon":60},"Find every match at once","Search the whole document or use a preset for emails, phone numbers, card numbers and IBANs. Each match is listed for you to review before any of it turns black, so nothing is removed without you checking it first.","i-hugeicons-file-search",{"title":62,"content":63,"icon":64},"Cleans what you can't see","Redaction also removes the metadata, thumbnails, attachments and earlier saved versions that can carry names, dates and other details you cannot see on the page.","i-hugeicons-file-braces",{"title":66,"content":67,"icon":68},"Your file never reaches a server","A redaction tool that needs your file on its server first has already seen what you are hiding. This one never receives it: the file is processed in your browser and never leaves your device.","i-hugeicons-security-lock",{"title":70,"content":71,"icon":72},"Free, no account, no watermark","Redact as many documents as you like. There is no sign-up and no watermark added to your result.","i-hugeicons-checkmark-square-01",[74,77,80],{"title":75,"content":76},"Share a contract, court filing or HR file","Send a signed agreement, a court filing or an HR document with the names, amounts and other personal details removed from the file itself, so the person receiving it cannot recover them.",{"title":78,"content":79},"Send a bank statement, payslip or ID copy","Share a bank statement, payslip or copy of an ID without the account or ID numbers. Black them out and the recipient gets everything they need and nothing they should not have.",{"title":81,"content":82},"Answer a data request or release public records","Handle a GDPR data-access request or a public-records (FOIA) release by redacting other people's personal data before the document goes out, without rebuilding it in another tool.","When to redact a PDF","What to do next",{"protectPdf":86,"removePdfPages":87,"watermark":88,"compressPdf":89},"Sending it on? Lock the redacted copy with a password.","A whole page has to go? Delete the page instead.","Stamp the shared copy as confidential.","Flattened pages can make the file bigger. Compress it before you email it.",{"current":91,"fallback":201},{"common":92,"tool":177},{"processingTitle":93,"processingFailedTitle":94,"readyTitle":95,"errorTitle":96,"errorDescription":97,"fileUnreadableTitle":98,"fileUnreadableDescription":99,"fileMissingTitle":100,"fileMissingDescription":101,"documentTooLargeTitle":102,"documentTooLargeDescription":103,"redactUnverifiedTitle":104,"redactUnverifiedDescription":105,"fileTooLargeTitle":106,"fileTooLargeDescription":107,"jobTooLargeTitle":108,"jobTooLargeDescription":109,"officeSizeLimits":110,"convertUnsupportedTitle":111,"convertUnsupportedDescription":112,"convertTooLargeTitle":113,"convertTooLargeDescription":114,"convertTooManyFilesTitle":115,"convertTooManyFilesDescription":116,"convertQuotaTitle":117,"convertQuotaDescription":118,"convertRateLimitedTitle":119,"convertRateLimitedDescription":120,"convertVerificationTitle":121,"convertVerificationDescription":122,"convertUnavailableTitle":123,"convertUnavailableDescription":124,"convertNetworkTitle":125,"convertNetworkDescription":126,"selectFileAgain":127,"retry":128,"downloadZip":129,"downloadFileTooltip":130,"finish":131,"download":132,"moreActions":133,"continueEditing":134,"backToEdition":135,"editAnotherFile":136,"restart":137,"feedback":138,"editNewFileWith":139,"renameFile":140,"printFile":141,"archiveFailedTitle":142,"archiveFailedDescription":143,"downloadFailedTitle":144,"downloadFailedDescription":145,"printFailedTitle":146,"printFailedDescription":145,"colorPickerNone":147,"colorPickerCustom":148,"officeConvertButton":149,"rateThisTool":150,"inputFile":151,"inputFiles":152,"zoomIn":153,"zoomOut":154,"reset":155,"resetTooltip":156,"resetConfirmTitle":157,"resetConfirmMessage":158,"moveLeft":159,"moveRight":160,"selectPagesTitle":161,"addPagesRange":162,"addPageSingle":163,"rangeFrom":164,"rangeTo":165,"ratingQuestion":166,"ratingThanksTitle":167,"ratingDoneTitle":168,"ratingBad":169,"ratingMeh":170,"ratingGood":171,"ratingSend":172,"ratingSentDescription":173,"ratingAlreadyRated":174,"ratingErrorExpired":175,"ratingErrorGeneric":176},"Your files are being processed","An error occurred during processing","Your files are ready!","Something went wrong on our side","We have been informed of this error. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.","We can no longer read your file","It may have been moved, renamed or edited since you opened it. Please select it again.","Your file is no longer loaded","Please select it again to finish here.","This document is too large for your browser","Your files never leave your device, so all the work happens in this tab and it ran out of memory. Closing other tabs and starting again may free enough to finish.","We could not confirm this redaction","We read the finished file back and something was still readable under one of the black areas, so we did not hand it over. Try marking a slightly larger area, or tell us about this document.","That file is too big","{name} is over the {max} limit for a single file.","Some files were not imported","They would have taken the total over the {max} limit.","Up to {file} per file, {job} in total.","We cannot convert this file","The format is not one we can turn into a PDF. Please try a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document.","Your files are too large","Please try again with smaller documents.","Too many files at once","Please convert them in smaller batches.","Conversions are paused for today","We have reached the daily limit for this free service. Please come back tomorrow.","Too many attempts","Please wait a minute before converting again.","We could not verify your browser","A privacy extension or an ad blocker may be blocking the check. Please retry, or disable it for this page.","The conversion service is unavailable","This is on our side, not yours. Please try again in a few minutes.","We could not reach our servers","Please check your connection and try again.","Select the file again","Retry","Download all (.zip)","Download file","Finish","Download","More actions","Continue editing","Back to edition","Edit another file","Restart","Give us your feedback","Continue editing with another tool","Rename file","Print file","Archive failed","We could not build the archive. Please download the files one by one.","Download failed","This link may have expired. Please convert the file again.","Print failed","None","Custom","Convert","Rate this tool","Input file","Input files","Zoom in","Zoom out","Reset","Reset the document to its initial state","Reset your changes?","All the changes you have made in this tool will be lost.","Move page to the left","Move page to the right","Select pages","Add pages {from}...{to}","Add page {n}","From","To","Did you enjoy our \"{tool}\" tool?","Thanks! Want to tell us more?","Thank you!","No","So-so","Yes!","Send","We have received your message. Thank you for your valuable help.","You have already rated this tool. Thanks again for your help!","Your rating was saved, but it is too late to add a message.","We could not save your message. Please try again.",{"title":178,"hint":179,"hintTouch":180,"findTitle":181,"find":182,"searchPlaceholder":183,"presetEmail":184,"presetPhone":185,"presetCardNumber":186,"presetIban":187,"searching":188,"noMatches":189,"searchFailed":190,"resultsTitle":191,"pageResult":192,"selectedCount":193,"selectAll":194,"cancelSearch":195,"areasTitle":196,"noAreas":197,"boxLabel":198,"removeArea":199,"fileSuffix":200},"Redaction","Drag over text to black it out, or drag anywhere else to draw a box.","Press and hold a word to black it out, or anywhere else to draw a box, then drag to cover more.","Search","Search the document","Text to find","Emails","Phone numbers","Card numbers","IBANs","Searching the document…","Nothing matched in this document.","This document could not be searched.","Found","Page {page} ({count})","{selected} of {total}","Select every result","Cancel","Marked areas","Nothing is marked yet.","Box","Remove this area","redacted",null,1789625181220]