How to permanently redact a PDF

Covering text is not removing it

A PDF can contain selectable text, pictures of text, or both. Drawing a black rectangle over content can leave the original information underneath. The page looks blacked out, but anyone who receives the file can often select the hidden passage, copy it and paste it elsewhere, or simply search for it.

The same goes for the other quick fixes people reach for: colouring the text to match a box, highlighting it in black, cropping it out of view, or covering it in a word processor before turning the document into a PDF. Each one changes how the page looks. None of them reliably takes the words out of the file.

What permanent redaction means

Permanent redaction removes the content itself, so there is nothing left to select, copy or find. Hidden information, such as comments, form answers, bookmarks, attachments and document properties, also needs attention. TeddyPDF removes the items listed below from the saved file.

TeddyPDF does it like this. Each page you mark is rebuilt as a flat picture of the page, with the marked areas blacked out. Words and pictures outside the marked areas remain visible within the new picture. The marked content, original selectable text and clickable links on that page are not retained. Across the whole saved file, comments, form fields, bookmarks, attached files and the title, author, subject and keywords are removed, including from pages you did not mark. Pages you did not mark keep their text, pictures and links.

There is a trade-off. A page rebuilt as a picture cannot be searched, and its text cannot be copied. If you need that, put the finished file through Make PDF searchable, which reads the remaining words back in. Use only the saved redacted copy for this step, then check the resulting file again before sharing it.

How to redact a PDF with TeddyPDF

1. Open Redact PDF and choose your file, or drop it onto the box. Your file is processed on your device and is not uploaded to TeddyPDF.
2. Type a word or number, such as a surname or an account number, and press Find and mark to mark every place it appears as text. Drag across anything else you want removed, such as a signature, a photograph or anything on a scanned page.
3. Press Redact and save. TeddyPDF shows a preview of every page of the redacted file. This is free.
4. Check the preview. If anything was missed, mark it and press Redact and save again.
5. Press Save redacted PDF. Saving needs a Redaction Pass: £4.99, one payment, valid for seven days, with no renewal. Corrections and repeat saves are included for those seven days.

Check the saved copy before you share it

Open the saved file, not your original, and look through every page, including the areas around your redactions.

The checks below are additional checks, not proof that every sensitive detail has been removed. A page saved as a picture can still contain visible information even when searching, copying and extracting text find nothing.

• Search for details you intended to remove everywhere (Ctrl+F on a computer, or Find in your PDF reader), and investigate any unexpected matches.
• Try to select and copy text inside a blacked-out area. There should be nothing to copy.
• Put the saved file through TeddyPDF's free PDF to text tool and search the result for the removed words.
• Open the file's properties in your PDF reader and check that the title and author are empty.

Find and mark only sees words stored as text. Words inside a scanned page or a photograph are part of the picture, so drag across them by hand.

What is free and what costs £4.99

Marking and previewing are free, with no account. Saving the redacted PDF needs a Redaction Pass: £4.99, one payment, valid for seven days, with no renewal, and corrections and repeat saves are included for those seven days. You pay only if you choose to buy a Redaction Pass and complete checkout. If you change your mind, you can ask for a full refund within 14 days, even if you have used the pass (see Refunds).

Payment is handled by our payment partner, so the checkout and your card statement may show Onelink or FilePresto, TeddyPDF's sister site from the same business, rather than TeddyPDF; the Terms explain who you are buying from. Other TeddyPDF tools remain free within their normal file and batch limits.

What redaction cannot do for you

Taking words out of a file does not change what the rest of the document gives away. Read the redacted copy as the person receiving it will: a job title, a date or a nearby sentence can sometimes point to the detail you meant to hide. And if an unredacted version has already been sent or published, redacting a new copy does not call it back.

This guide explains how the tool works. It is not legal advice. If you are redacting for a court, a regulator, an employer or a data protection request, follow the rules or instructions that apply to you.

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