Redact a PDF online to anonymise it before sharing
Draw areas over names, addresses, social security numbers or bank details: the affected pages are rebuilt with those areas blacked out, and the hidden text is truly removed from the file, not just covered with a black box. Ideal for anonymising a document under the GDPR, and everything happens in your browser: the file never leaves your device.
Drop your PDF here
or choose a file on your computer, tablet or phone
100% local reading: the document is never sent over the internet.
How to anonymise a PDF in three steps
- 1
Open the document
Drag the PDF into the reader or pick it from your device, then open the Redact tool.
- 2
Draw the areas to hide
Draw a rectangle over every piece of information to remove, on as many pages as needed, then confirm.
- 3
Check and save
Redacted pages are rebuilt with the areas blacked out. Until you save the file you can still undo; once it is saved, the redaction is permanent.
Everything happens in your browser: the file never leaves your device. Open in the reader
Related tools and guides
- ↑ Free tools
- → Read a PDF online with nothing to install
- → Edit the text of a PDF
- → Annotate and highlight a PDF
- → Make a scanned PDF searchable with OCR
- → Compare two versions of a PDF
- → Reorder, rotate and delete pages
- → Merge several PDFs into one
- → Split a PDF into several files
- → Compress a PDF to send it by email
- → Password-protect a PDF
- → Convert JPG or PNG images to PDF
- → Sign a PDF online, step by step
- → Handle your PDFs from Chrome with the Certyneo extension
Redacting a PDF: frequently asked questions
Is the hidden text really removed?
Yes. Drawing a black box leaves the text underneath, where anyone can copy it. Here, every redacted page is rebuilt as an image with the areas blacked out: the hidden text no longer exists in the file.
Is the rest of the page still searchable?
Yes. Text outside the blacked-out areas is added back as an invisible layer, so you can still search for a word or copy a passage.
What is lost when redacting?
On redacted pages, links, form fields and annotations disappear, since the page becomes an image. Across the document, bookmarks and forms are not kept. Other pages keep their text and layout.
Is redaction enough to anonymise a document under the GDPR?
It removes the information you hide, provided you miss none: check every page, including headers, footers and appendices. Also think about indirect details that could identify a person.
Is my document sent to a server?
No. Redaction is computed entirely in your browser. That matters for a confidential document: Certyneo never receives either the original or the redacted version.
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