Removing sensitive data from PDFs
Before distributing documents, it’s considerate to redact certain document contents to avoid possible legal consequences of exposing such sensitive information. The redaction tool lets you permanently black out a specified area or certain text, such as name, dates, or numbers, or images. You may further use the Search and Redact tool to search and remove specified words or phrases in one or multiple PDF documents.
The text or images you mark for redaction, by default, are outlined with red lines and will be blacked out when the cursor moves over the redacted areas. To change the default look of the redaction marks, you can change the settings in the Redaction properties dialog box before you use the tool.
Optionally, you may set redaction code to overprint an overlay text on the redacted area. Then you use Apply Redaction to permanently make all redacted contents unreadable. Since this command cannot be undone, make sure you save a copy of the document in case you need to access the original content of the document.
In addition, Whiteout can be used to remove contents permanently and backfill it with the color white.
If you do not want others to learn certain information when they receive the file, you can use the Inspect Document tool to permanently remove the selected types of contents from a PDF document or hidden content.
