True Redact PDF (physically remove the underlying text)
You black out an ID number in a contract, an address on a résumé, a name in a report before sending it — but here’s the catch: most free tools “redact” fake. They draw a black box over the text while the words stay in the file, and the other side just copies them straight back out. That leak has burned plenty of people. True Redact is different: you mark the areas to black out, and compress cat rasterizes each page that has a redaction and burns the black boxes into the pixels — the underlying text is physically deleted, so copying, searching or parsing turns up nothing. The honest trade-off: redacted pages become images and lose their searchable text layer; pages with no redactions are kept as-is, with their text intact. It all runs locally in your browser, so sensitive files are never uploaded.
You black out an ID number in a contract, an address on a résumé, a name in a report before sending it — but here’s the catch: most free tools “redact” fake.
How to true redact
- 1Select the PDF you want to redact.
- 2Drag on the page preview to mark every area to permanently black out (multiple areas and pages are fine).
- 3Check the box positions; tap the corner mark to delete and redraw if needed.
- 4Click “Redact permanently & download” to get a PDF with the underlying text physically removed.
Why use compress cat's True Redact?
- Real deletion, not a fake cover: redacted pages are rasterized and the text beneath the boxes is gone from the file — copying, searching and parsing all come up empty. That’s what redaction should mean.
- Only touches the pages it must: just the pages with redactions are rasterized; the rest stay as-is with their text layer intact, so you don’t turn a whole document into images to hide one line.
- Sensitive content stays local: marking, rasterizing and exporting all happen in your browser — IDs, contracts and medical records never pass through any server.
Frequently asked questions
The difference is real deletion vs. a fake cover. Edit PDF’s white-out just lays an opaque shape over the page — the underlying text stays in the file and can be copied out. True Redact rasterizes the affected pages and burns the black boxes into the pixels, physically deleting the text beneath. For real redaction, use this.
No — and that’s exactly why it’s safe. A redacted page becomes an image with no text layer, so nothing on it can be searched or copied (including whatever was under the boxes, which is gone). Pages without redactions are unaffected and stay searchable. If you need full-text search, run OCR on the image pages afterward.
The exported file is not reversible — the underlying data is deleted, which is the whole point of redaction. So keep your original file, and only distribute the redacted version once you’ve confirmed it’s right.
No. Marking, rendering, rasterizing and exporting all happen locally in your browser — the file is never uploaded, which matters most when you’re handling sensitive information.
Turn it into an automated flow
Need to batch-process, or chain several steps? Use the workflow builder to combine compress, merge, rotate and watermark into a reusable pipeline.
Updated · compress cat team