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Redact a PDFOn this page
The mistake that leaks information
Most people redact a PDF the same way they would on paper: draw a black rectangle over the name, number or paragraph that should not be seen. On screen the text disappears, so it looks done. But in a PDF the rectangle is just another object placed on top of the page. The text underneath is still in the file.
Anyone who receives the document can select the hidden area and copy it, search for a word in it, or open the file in another program that ignores the rectangle. Court filings, government reports and company documents have leaked this way for years, often because the person redacting simply used the wrong tool.
The same is true for a white box, a highlight set to black, or changing the text colour to match the background. All of them change how the page looks, not what the file contains.
What real redaction does
Real redaction removes the content from the file, not only from the view. After redacting, there must be nothing left under the black box: no text to select, no characters to search for and no hidden layer to switch off.
In ClearwayPDF, a page you redact is rebuilt as a picture of itself with the black boxes painted into the pixels. The original text, drawings and images on that page are thrown away, and the document is put back together from scratch. Form field values, document information such as the author and title, and leftover objects from earlier edits are not carried over either.
Pages without redactions are copied unchanged, so their text stays selectable and searchable.
How to redact a PDF in ClearwayPDF
Open the PDF in the editor and choose Redact in the toolbar. Drag a rectangle over everything that should be removed: a name, an account number, a signature, a whole paragraph. Each box appears in the Redact panel as marked for redaction, so you can review the list and remove a box you placed by mistake.
When everything is marked, click Apply Redaction and confirm. Then click Done to download the redacted copy. Your original file on your computer is not changed, which is useful because you will often need the unredacted version yourself.
The whole process runs in your browser. The document is never uploaded, which matters most for exactly the kind of files people redact: medical records, salary slips, ID documents and legal papers.
Check the result before you send it
Open the redacted file in a normal PDF viewer and try to select text inside a black box. Nothing should be selected. Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and search for a word you removed. It should not be found.
Look at the rest of the document too. A name you redacted on page 2 may also appear in a header, a footnote, the file name or the email you attach the file to. Redaction only removes what you marked.
Remember that a redacted page is now an image. Its text can no longer be selected, searched or read aloud by a screen reader. If the receiver needs to work with the rest of that page, mention it, or keep the redactions to as few pages as possible.
When redaction is the wrong tool
If you need to remove most of a document, it is often cleaner to extract the pages you want to share into a new PDF, or to export a fresh copy from the original Word or spreadsheet file with the sensitive parts deleted.
If you only want to hide something from casual view, for example on a shared screen, an ordinary rectangle is fine. Just do not send that file to anyone who should not see what is underneath.