Draw black boxes or freehand marks over sensitive information and permanently remove it from your PDF — redacted areas are flattened so the original text or image can never be recovered. FREE online tool. No watermarks, no registration. Permanently black out sensitive PDF content.
Use black to permanently hide content. Other colors are useful for highlighting or annotating — marked pages are still flattened either way.
Enhance your file with more tools below
Black out names, ID numbers, financial details, or any confidential content from your PDF before sharing it. Unlike a simple black box drawn in a PDF editor, marked pages here are flattened into images — the hidden text and images are permanently destroyed and cannot be recovered by selecting, copying, or extracting the PDF.
A black rectangle placed over text in many editors only hides it visually — the original text often remains selectable, searchable, or recoverable underneath. This tool actually removes it: any page you mark is rendered to a flattened image, so the covered content is gone for good.
Use the rectangle tool for clean boxes over text blocks, tables, or photos, or switch to the freehand tool to scribble over signatures, handwriting, or irregular shapes. Undo, redo, and clear marks per page before you export.
Your PDF is processed entirely inside your browser. Nothing is uploaded to a server, so confidential documents never leave your device — not even during redaction.
Redacting PDFs is essential whenever a document has to be shared but still contains information that should stay private. Here is how professionals use PDF redaction in daily workflows.
Court filings and legal correspondence often must be redacted before public release — Social Security numbers, minors' names, account numbers, and other protected data need to be permanently removed, not just hidden.
Before forwarding a contract, invoice, or payroll document externally, black out salary figures, bank details, or personal ID numbers that the recipient does not need to see.
Anonymize patient records for research or case studies by permanently removing names, dates of birth, and other identifying details while keeping the medical content intact.
Upload your PDF, choose the rectangle or freehand tool, draw over the content you want to hide, then click the download icon in the toolbar.
It is truly removed. Any page containing a redaction mark is flattened into an image when you download, so the original text or image underneath is permanently destroyed — it cannot be selected, searched, or extracted.
No. Pages you don't mark are copied as-is, keeping their original text, fonts, and searchability. Only pages with a redaction mark are flattened.
Yes, use the undo/redo buttons, or the eraser icon to clear all marks on the current page, at any time before you download.
You can upload PDF files up to 70 MB. Larger files may take more time to process but are supported within this limit.
No, everything happens locally in your browser — including rendering, marking, and flattening. Your file is never uploaded anywhere.
No, the tool cannot process encrypted or password-protected PDFs. Please remove the password before uploading.
Yes, the tool is fully responsive and supports touch drawing on smartphones and tablets, with all processing happening locally.
After redacting your document, you may also want to compress your PDF, merge multiple PDFs, or remove unwanted pages before sharing it.
Explore these complementary tools to finish preparing your PDF for sharing.
Explore the full collection of tools in the PDF Security Tools.