I Hack PDF
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Redact PDF

Permanently remove a rectangular area by rebuilding the rendered page.

Read the guide ↓

What this tool does

Permanently remove a selected rectangular area from the rendered output. The tool masks the area before rebuilding the PDF as page images, rather than simply placing a removable drawing over the source.

What you can open
One PDF, a page selection and a rectangle to mask.
What you will download
An image-based PDF with the selected areas removed from the rendered pages.

How to use it

  1. Locate each sensitive area and choose the affected pages.
  2. Set the rectangle and a suitable rendering resolution.
  3. Download the output and inspect every page, including edges of the masked area.

Options explained

Pages
Select physical page positions: all, a range such as 1-3, several choices such as 1, 4, last, or the final page with last.
Left, in points
Set the horizontal position from the visible left edge, measured in PDF points.
Top, in points
Set the vertical position from the visible top edge, measured in PDF points.
Width, in points
Set the width of the added object or selected rectangle in PDF points.
Height, in points
Set the height of the added object or selected rectangle in PDF points.
Resolution, DPI
Set the rendering resolution. Higher values can improve visible detail but use more memory and create larger files.

Know the tradeoffs

  • The rebuilt output loses original selectable text, forms, links, layers, attachments and digital signatures.
  • You are responsible for identifying every sensitive location; one rectangle may not cover every occurrence.

Questions about this tool

How is this different from drawing a black box?

The mask is applied before page images are saved into a new PDF, so underlying source text is not retained there.

Will the remaining text stay selectable?

No. The output is rebuilt as images.