How to permanently redact sensitive information from a PDF
1 min read·25 July 2026
Social security numbers, addresses, financial data — when sharing documents you sometimes want to permanently obscure sensitive information. With PDFrust's redact tool you remove text blocks definitively, not just visually.
Why redact instead of drawing a black box?
A black marking drawn in a drawing app is not safe: the text is still in the PDF file and is visible to anyone who removes the layer or copies the text. Redacting permanently removes the text from the file — including from the underlying text layer.
When do you use redact?
When sharing medical records, court decisions, contracts with confidential clauses, or identity documents from which you want to remove a national ID number or address. In legal and government documents correct redaction is required.
Redact PDF
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Redact tool in PDFrust
Open the redact tool. Upload your PDF. Select the areas you want to remove by dragging over them. Choose the fill colour (default black). Click 'Apply' — PDFrust removes the underlying text and places an opaque rectangle. Download the redacted PDF.
Check after redaction
After redacting always check: select text around the redacted area to see if any text "leaks through". Use the pdf2text tool to extract the full text and verify the redacted words are gone.
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