How to redact a PDF properly
By the Fusion Office team · Updated
Quick answer
Real redaction deletes the text, not just covers it. Open Redact PDF, enter the words or numbers to remove and press Redact: matches are deleted from the file and blacked out. For ID and account numbers, Auto-redact PII finds them for you.
Why a black rectangle isn't enough
Drawing a black box over text in most editors only adds a shape on top. The text underneath is still in the file: anyone can select it, copy it, search for it or remove the box. Many leaked “redacted” documents failed this way.
Proper redaction removes the characters from the page's content and then marks the spot, which is what the Fusion Office redaction tools do.
Redact specific words or numbers
- 1Open Redact PDF and choose the file.
- 2Enter each word, name or number to remove on its own line.
- 3Turn on Whole words only to avoid partial matches, and Match case if capitals matter.
- 4Press Redact and download.
Find personal data automatically
Auto-redact PII looks for Aadhaar and PAN numbers, card numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, GSTIN, IFSC and IBAN codes. Numbers with check digits (Aadhaar, cards) are validated, which avoids blacking out random digits.
Before sharing a document widely, run the privacy scanner: it also reports hidden properties such as the author, comments, attachments and scripts, and can produce a cleaned copy.
Check your redaction
- Open the redacted PDF and search for a removed word: it should not be found.
- Try selecting text where the black box is: nothing should be copied.
- Scanned pages contain images, not text, so text search can't redact them. Run OCR first, or cover the area by hand in the PDF editor with its Redact tool, which also removes the content underneath.