FreeWrench
Redact PDF
Drawing a black box in a normal editor often leaves the text underneath, ready to be copied. Here, the marked pages are rebuilt so that the content is gone.
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How to use it
- Open your PDF.
- Drag over everything that should be hidden, on every page where it appears.
- Download the redacted file and check it.
Good to know
Each page you mark becomes an image, so its text can no longer be selected or searched. Pages without marks stay as they were.
Document properties such as author and title are cleared too.
Why a black rectangle is often not enough
| Method | Is the text gone? |
|---|---|
| Black highlight in a PDF reader | Usually no, it can be copied |
| Black shape over text in a word processor | No, the text remains in the file |
| Marked pages rebuilt as images, as here | Yes, on those pages |
What this tool changes
- Each page you mark is turned into a picture at about 180 DPI, with the black boxes burned in.
- Pages without marks stay as they were, so text on them is still searchable.
- Title, author, subject, keywords and producer details are cleared.
A safe routine
Names and account numbers tend to appear more than once, including in headers and footers, so go through every page. After downloading, open the file and search for the words you hid. If a search still finds one, it appears on a page you did not mark. Files attached inside the PDF are not removed, so check for those in highly sensitive cases.
Questions
How can I check that it worked?
Try selecting the text on the marked page. On a correctly redacted page nothing can be selected at all.
Why did my file get larger?
Marked pages are stored as high-resolution images.