Where to Redact PDF? Platform Comparison Guide

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (The Viewer)

It is the most widespread trap. Reader is not a secure redaction medium, but a viewing and commenting media. It contains a Redact tool in the Tools menu, although this is frequently disabled, and so people have to make do.

Findings: Non-recommendable in the case of redaction. It has no other purpose but to open files that have been securedly redacted elsewhere.

The Built-In Preview in Your Computer (Mac)

Preview is not as has been thought. It is possible to add a solid black shape by using the markup tool. The critical step? This is followed by printing the document to a fresh PDF so as to make the annotation non-selectable. It is a page by page manual process, which does not scrub metadata.

Verdict: A medium, free, one-off, low-sensitivity redact, even though you recall the important part of it, which is to print to PDF. No bulk work or legal documents.

PDFescape/ Smallpdf Online Editors

These are free online tools that have redaction capabilities. It is self-evident that this is a risk: you upload sensitive documents to a third-party server. They can claim to disclose their privacy policy by deleting the information but it is tough call when it comes to confidential information.

Ruling: Confidential documents only and public ones. This comfort is not worth the security roll of the dice.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC

It is the benchmark of the industry. It has a standalone Redact toolset. You can find and automatically redact data such as phone numbers or credit cards, apply it to multiple documents, and, most importantly, use the so-called Examine Document feature to automatically strip any hidden metadata, layers, and form data out of the data being redacted permanently.

The stages are Mark for Redaction, Apply, Sanitize and Save. I also apply it to client contracts as well as in any document that is liable to legal discovery. The downside? The price of subscription is high among the infrequent users.

Sentencing: The decision of the professional. And in the event that you are a regular redactioner in the law, HR, or finance, it is a worthwhile, and mighty, investment.

Nitro Pro / Foxit Phantom PDF

These are the competent substitutes of Adobe. Both provide powerful and safe redaction features that are permanent, deleting data and metadata. The interface of Foxit is especially clean to do so. They are also relatively less expensive to buy on a single purchase basis which is appealing to subscription expulsers.

They also in my testing fulfill the core redaction role equally securely to Adobe. The place where they occasionally fall behind is in the sophisticated batch-processing and pattern-recognition capabilities of huge and complicated tasks.

Rating: Good and affordable power tools. Best suited to companies who are in need of severe redaction functions without the Adobe ecosystem.

iDox.ai Redact (Previously iRedact)

This is a breakthrough application in certain applications. It is a web-based redaction platform, which is devoted. When you upload a PDF, you have a system that is powered by AI that will automatically make suggestions about the potentially sensitive information, such as names, dates, financial numbers. You do go over and verify every redaction.

I tried it using a 50-page technical report and it detected 90 percent of the occasions that I had to conceal within a few seconds and this saved me hours of going through the report by hand. The information is managed safely and files are degraded off their servers.

Result: Ideal in handling heavy loads of documents where the sensitive information is subject to regular patterns (such as legal discovery, anonymization in journalism or publishing case studies). It saves time, and is not a substitute of human review.

Online Redact: Sejda.com

Sejda.com is one of the tools that I would recommend because of its transparency and security-first policy. Its re-editing instrument operates on-the-fly in your internet browser on most of its features, implying that your file is not loaded to execute the re-editing marks. The last step to apply is only sent to their secure server.

It is easy, reliable in both mid-level sensitivity documents and extremely cheap on a per task basis.

Verdict: The advice I would give to a person who requires a safe, one-time redaction and does not need to install any software. It is a wonderful transition between the free and the professional suites.

I possess one page, one social security number to conceal.

Drive Mac Preview (with Print to PDF) or a reliable client-side online application such as Sejda.

I work in HR/Legal, and I am redacting on a weekly basis.

This will require a purchase of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC or a perpetual license of Foxit Phantom PDF. It is worth its efficiency and audit trail.

It is 1000 pages of depositions I have to clean up.

After a review, get a dedicated AI program, such as iDox.ai Redact, to perform the hard work, and do one more check.

I should make sure there is nothing to be recovered to file in a court.

Apply the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and carefully apply its Examine Document and Sanitize features. Don't cut corners.

Problem: Can a black marker tool be used in a PDF redacting tool?

A: No. This simply gives the text a visual veneer. The text behind can be selected, copied and restored completely.

Q: What is metadata and why do I have to take it out?

A: Metadata is the concealed information in a PDF such as the name of the author, the date of creation of the document, the chronicle of its editing and even the past file names. An appropriate redaction tool will purify this data.

Online PDF redactors: Are they safe?

A: It depends. You are placing your file upon their servers. Services with privacy policies that are well defined and have stringent data deletion guarantees should only be used. In case of very sensitive information, stay off internet tools.

P: Is it safe to redact PDF at no cost?

A: Yes, at very simple jobs which require one page. The addition of shapes followed by the use of the Mac Preview method of printing to PDF works. Beyond that, there is a tendency of free tools to undermine security or functionality.

Q: Can redacting be performed on scanned PDFs (text images)?

A: Not directly. Scanned PDFs are pictures. The first thing to do is to process them through an OCR ( Optical Character Recognition ) to make the text selectable then redact. OCR is also inbuilt with most professional tools (Acrobat Pro, Foxit).