PDF Redact Offline

Draw black boxes over sensitive text and export a permanently pixel-burned PDF — no upload, no server, no reversible annotation layer. Everything runs in your browser.

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Drop a PDF here, or click to choose

File never leaves your device — processed entirely offline

⚠ Draw red boxes over every region to redact. The export will burn black pixels over those areas and strip the underlying text content.

Draw rectangles over text to redact. Scroll to zoom if needed.

Exporting…

How it works

1. Open PDF locallypdf.js renders each page to a canvas in your browser. The file is never sent anywhere.

2. Draw redaction boxesClick and drag to select regions on each page. A red preview box shows what will be covered.

3. Pixel-burn exportEach page is re-rendered to a fresh canvas; selected regions get solid black fill drawn directly over the pixels — no transparent overlay.

4. Text layer removedpdf-lib embeds the page as a flat raster image, so the original text stream (including any text hidden under the black box) is gone from the file.

The result is a rasterised PDF where redacted areas cannot be un-hidden by copy-paste, "select all", colour inversion, or layer toggles. For court-level or FOIA submissions always verify the output with a second review pass.

Frequently asked questions

Is this truly permanent — can the text be recovered?: Yes, when you use the Export button here. The tool re-renders every page to a canvas (raster pixels), draws opaque black fills over selected regions, then embeds those pixel images into the new PDF via pdf-lib. The original vector text content stream is not carried over, so there is no hidden layer to unhide. This is fundamentally different from "annotation-based" redaction (placing a black rectangle annotation on top of text) which is easily defeated by removing the annotation.
Why does the output PDF look slightly different or have a larger file size?: The export converts each page to a raster image (PNG at screen resolution). This guarantees permanent redaction but trades vector sharpness for pixel-level security. Text in non-redacted areas is still readable on screen, but the file will no longer be searchable or copy-pasteable — a known and acceptable trade-off for fully sanitised documents. If you need a smaller file, reduce the page scale before exporting (future option) or compress the output PDF separately.
Does this tool upload my file or use any external server?: No. All processing happens inside your browser using pdf.js (rendering) and pdf-lib (PDF assembly). Your file bytes never leave your machine. You can verify this by disconnecting from the internet after the page loads — the tool continues to work. This makes it safe for confidential legal documents, medical records, financial statements, and HR files.
Can I redact across multiple pages in one session?: Yes. Navigate between pages using the arrow buttons. Each page tracks its own set of redaction rectangles independently. When you click Export, every page is processed — pages with redaction boxes get their selected regions blacked out; pages without any boxes are re-rendered as clean raster images. The full document is assembled into a single downloaded PDF.
What should I do after exporting to make sure the redaction worked?: Open the downloaded PDF and attempt: (1) select-all text with Ctrl+A / Cmd+A — if redaction worked, no text is selectable; (2) copy text from the redacted region — nothing should paste; (3) try "Find" / Ctrl+F for a word you redacted — it should not be found. As a final check, open the file in a PDF inspector (e.g. Adobe Acrobat's "Examine Document") — you should see only image content, no text objects.