About the Redact PDF
Redaction is the one PDF task where doing it wrong has consequences that make the news. Drawing a black rectangle over text in most PDF editors covers it visually while leaving the words underneath fully intact — anyone can select, copy or extract them. Courts, government departments and law firms have all disclosed protected information exactly this way.
This tool avoids that failure mode by flattening each page to an image and then applying your black boxes, so the underlying text is genuinely gone from the file rather than merely hidden. That matters when you are meeting redaction duties such as the personal-identifier rules in US federal court filings under FRCP 5.2, or removing third-party personal data before responding to a subject access request under UK GDPR.
It's part of the PDF collection on Toolzy, a growing platform of 135+ free, privacy-first tools built for speed and a great experience on every device.
Also known as: redact, hide, censor, remove, sensitive.
Why use the Redact PDF?
- No watermarks on your output
- Handles multi-page and large PDFs
- Keeps your original formatting and quality
- Works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone
When to use it
- Preparing documents for email or printing
- Combining scanned pages or invoices
- Reducing file size to meet upload limits
How to use the Redact PDF
- Open the Redact PDF. Open the Redact PDF on this page, there is nothing to install and no account needed.
- Add your input. Add your file by clicking the upload area or dragging it in. It is read on your device, not uploaded.
- Adjust options. Choose any options you need, the Redact PDF updates instantly.
- Get your result. Click the action button to download or copy your result. It is 100% free.