Redact PDF — Permanently Remove Sensitive Text

Redact a PDF online — true, audit-grade redaction in your browser

Redaction is the act of permanently removing sensitive content from a document — names, phone numbers, signatures, account numbers, medical details, addresses — before sharing it. The single most common redaction failure is the "I drew a black rectangle on top in Word, exported as PDF, and uploaded" mistake. Recipients select the rectangle, move it aside, and read the original text underneath. Real redaction has to remove the underlying content, not hide it.

GN PDF's Redact tool does it correctly. The black (or any colour) rectangle is rendered directly into the page's content stream. The original text under the rectangle is replaced. There is no separate annotation layer. There is no "select and move" recovery path. Once you apply and download, the redaction is permanent — equivalent to taking a marker pen to a paper document.

Two redaction modes — pick the right one

• Draw bars — drag rectangles directly over the text you want to redact. Perfect for one-off jobs and visual review (signatures, photographs, handwritten notes).
• Find text — type the string (name, phone, email, ID number, regex) and we'll mark every occurrence across every page. Perfect for bulk PII removal at scale (court filings, hospital records, vendor lists).

How to redact a PDF, step by step

1. Drop your PDF onto this page.
2. Pick "Draw bars" or "Find text". You can mix both in the same session.
3. Mark up. In Draw mode, drag rectangles. In Find mode, type the string and click Find & mark all. Marks appear as semi-transparent overlays so you can verify before applying.
4. Review every mark. Drag, resize, or click "×" on any mark you want to remove. This is the most important step — once you click Apply, redactions are permanent.
5. Click Apply & Download. Your fully redacted PDF saves to Downloads.

Common redaction use cases

• Legal — court filings, depositions, exhibits. Names of minors, witnesses, addresses, bank details.
• Medical — patient records, lab reports. HIPAA-style PHI removal before research or insurance submission.
• HR — payslips, offer letters, performance reviews. Personal data, salary figures, identity numbers.
• Government / FOI — freedom-of-information disclosures. National security, third-party identifiers.
• Personal — apartment lease, bank statement, ID copy. Account numbers, your full address, your photograph.

Redaction best-practice checklist

1. Always preview the redacted file in a different reader (Adobe, Chrome, Preview) before sharing. We auto-preview in this tool, but a second eye doesn't hurt.
2. Don't rely on the text layer alone. If the document was scanned, run our OCR PDF first to make the text layer searchable — otherwise "Find & mark all" can't see the text.
3. Watch for hidden metadata. Authors, keywords, comments, version history can still leak data. After redacting, run the file through Compress PDF with metadata-stripping on for a cleaner export.
4. Redact images of text separately. If your PDF contains a screenshot or photograph of sensitive text, redact the image area itself with a Draw-bar rectangle — Find mode only sees the text layer.

Why GN PDF's redaction is different

Most "free" redaction tools online either (1) just add an annotation that can be removed, or (2) require an upload to a third-party server. Both are unsafe for a tool whose entire purpose is to remove sensitive data. GN PDF runs the redaction client-side via pdf-lib, so your unredacted file never leaves your device — and the redaction is burned into the content stream, not stored as a removable annotation.