What Program To Blur Out Sensitive Information In PDF Document?

[u/Samuel18020]

I have to send in a sensitive document by email.  There are a few things on that document I want to blank out or cover.  When I mean blank out or cover, I do mean like I'm doing this obviously where the receiving person obviously can see that.  

I have a windows laptop.  Does anyone know what program I can download and use for this?  When I download a PDF file, by default it opens with Microsoft Edge PDF on my computer.  I normally use chrome for web browsing.

If I download Adobe Reader, can I do this?  Do I need an Adobe Reader account?  Do I need to pay a subscription for this?  I only need to do this once.

What other program or sites can I use for this?  I'm not sure I would want to upload a document on a website to do this as it might not be safe?  I do have some sensitive information on it which is why I want to blank it out.  I wanted to do it initially with paint but I can't open this file in paint because it's PDF.

I will do this on my windows laptop or chromebook.

I just noticed I could edit the file by clicking Draw on the PDF file that is opened on Microsoft Edge. I could just draw a line through it and it covers it but obviously it isn't neat compared to like if you resize a rectangle and have it cover whatever sensitive information you want to cover. Is doing that fine or it's better with a regular program where the blurring of it looks even and neat?

[u/LungHeadZ]

Just a thought but if it's going to be completely redacted is there any need for the word to exist in the first place? I'd just add basic black rectangles in that case.

So long as you'd be able to read the document and know what those words are then it should meet the same goal? Unless you're thinking of the redactions being removed when someone has certain privileges to the pdf.

If it's the latter I'm of no help but wish you luck :)

[u/Samuel18020 → u/LungHeadZ]

I just need some numbers blurred. Imagine like it shows your entire bank account number or something similar.

Adding a basic black rectangle is exactly what I want to do. I can't seem to do this on the Microsoft Edge PDF program though?

I was able to click on Draw and then draw a black line over the sensitive information. But when I do that, it isn't isn't neat since it's like me taking a marker and just drawing over it. But that is still fine?

[u/steveace60]

I use PDFgear to covert a pdf into a jpeg. You can then use paint to black out sensitive information. Then you can convert the image back to a pdf document if needed.

Edit: I just learned that you can do this without using paint. You can do the entire process directly within PDFgear using its built-in redaction tool.

PDFgear includes a secure Redaction Tool that permanently deletes underlying text and metadata so it can never be recovered. Here is how to use it:

1.     Open your document in the PDFgear Desktop App.

2.     Click on the Protect tab at the top menu.

3.     Select the Redact tool.

4.     Drag your mouse over the sensitive text or images you want to black out.

5.     Click Apply Redaction (or save the document) to permanently wipe the data.

[u/NR75]

Pdf24tools

[u/AirTrue6195]

Pdfgear or foxit pdf reader. Just remember to create a new pdf from your edited pdf. If they open with the same program they can undo your edits or in some cases the text box or whatever you use to redact may not be present if opened in say acrobat. So test in acrobat before you send

[u/QuirkyPhoton]

Use PDF24 online or download their Windows app. Edit the document any way you want and save it again as a PDF. Another alternative is to screenshot the PDF into a jpeg, use Paint or anything to edit the image and then export as PDF again.

[u/poixninja]

Blue can be undone, even if the PDF has been flattened. Black bars and flatten the PDF is the way to go for true redaction