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Draw over text or images to permanently destroy the data — not just cover it. True redaction. Free, no upload, GDPR-compliant.
or click to browse — max 200 MB
Redacting a PDF permanently removes sensitive content so it cannot be recovered. Doclair's browser-based tool requires no software and no account.
Upload your PDF by clicking Drop your PDF here or dragging it into the upload area.
Draw redaction boxes over sensitive areas by clicking and dragging on the page preview. Use the text search to find and mark all instances of specific words or phrases.
Click Apply Redactions Permanently to destroy the content and download your redacted PDF.
Drawing a black rectangle over text in a standard PDF editor only hides it visually. The underlying text data remains in the file and can be exposed by anyone who removes the annotation, copies the text, or uses a screen reader. True redaction works differently: it re-renders each page as a raster image and draws solid black pixels over the sensitive area. The original vector text is gone — there is no annotation layer to remove, no hidden characters, no recoverable data.
Under GDPR and other privacy regulations, simply covering data is not sufficient — the data must be irreversibly removed. Doclair's true redaction approach satisfies this requirement. Because all processing happens in your browser, no personal data is transmitted to any server, making it safe to use on regulated documents such as medical records, legal contracts, and financial statements.
Doclair works in Safari on iPhone and iPad, and Chrome on Android. The touch-based drawing interface lets you draw redaction boxes by tapping and dragging directly on the page preview. No app download required.