PDF Redaction Tool — Permanently Remove Sensitive Content Free
Overview
Drawing a black box over PDF text does not redact it — the underlying text remains selectable and searchable. True redaction permanently removes the text data from the PDF file. PDF Mavericks provides a redaction tool that removes both the visible content and the underlying text layer, so redacted information cannot be recovered by selecting, copying, or searching the file. Use it for FOIA responses, legal discovery, HR documents, and financial reports before sharing externally.
How to Use This Tool
Open the Redaction tool and upload your PDF. Use the selection tool to highlight text, numbers, or images you want to permanently remove. The selected areas are marked for redaction. Click 'Apply Redaction' to permanently burn the removals into the document — this flattens the page and eliminates the underlying data. Download the redacted PDF and verify by attempting to select text in the marked areas.
Ready to get started? It's free, no registration required, and your files never leave your device.
Compress PDF →Frequently Asked Questions
Is covering text with a black box the same as redacting it?
No. Overlaying a black rectangle is an annotation — it visually hides the text but the underlying data remains in the file. Anyone can remove the annotation or copy-paste the hidden text. True redaction permanently deletes the content from the PDF data structure.
Can redacted content be recovered?
When using proper redaction rather than annotation, the content is permanently removed from the PDF. There is nothing to recover from a correctly redacted file.
What types of content can I redact?
You can redact text, numbers, images, and embedded metadata. For legal or compliance redaction, also check and remove document metadata such as author name and revision history using the metadata cleaner.