Is this a real redaction, or just a black box drawn on top?

Real: any page with a redaction box is fully rasterized (turned into a flattened image) with the box baked in at the pixel level, so there is no underlying text or image data left to recover — a box drawn as a simple overlay (which some tools do) can be removed or seen through, this cannot.

Does this affect pages without a redaction box?

No — only pages you actually draw a box on are flattened; every other page keeps its original, unmodified content.

Will the redacted page still have selectable text?

No — flattening the whole page to guarantee the covered content is truly gone also removes selectable text everywhere else on that same page, not just under the box. Pages without a redaction box are unaffected.

Redact PDF

Permanently black out sensitive content in a PDF — the covered content is removed, not just hidden.

Choose a PDF file

Drop a file, paste, or click to browse

Up to 50 MB.

Files never leave your device — redaction and export both run entirely in your browser.

Related tools

How it works

1
Choose a PDF

Up to 50 MB.
2
Drag a box over anything sensitive

On any page, one or more boxes.
3
Export the redacted PDF

Every page with a box is flattened to an image — nothing underneath survives.

FAQ

Is this a real redaction, or just a black box drawn on top?: Real: any page with a redaction box is fully rasterized (turned into a flattened image) with the box baked in at the pixel level, so there is no underlying text or image data left to recover — a box drawn as a simple overlay (which some tools do) can be removed or seen through, this cannot.
Does this affect pages without a redaction box?: No — only pages you actually draw a box on are flattened; every other page keeps its original, unmodified content.
Will the redacted page still have selectable text?: No — flattening the whole page to guarantee the covered content is truly gone also removes selectable text everywhere else on that same page, not just under the box. Pages without a redaction box are unaffected.
Does this tool upload my PDF anywhere?: No — redaction and export both run entirely in your browser.