PDF files are very popular and the most effective file format for sharing documents or uploading documents on any website. In this post, we are going to learn What Redact Mean in PDF and how to do it easily.
The security of electronic PDF documents is becoming increasingly important in the digital age. These files may contain sensitive or private information, such as contact details, bank accounts, home addresses, etc. Disclosure will bring threats and hidden dangers to the author.
Redacting text or images on a PDF is an effective way to get around this and secure the information in the PDF files. But what does redact mean in PDF and how to redact a PDF.
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What Does Redact Mean in PDF?
Redaction, also known as sanitization, means removing sensitive data or information you don’t want others to see from a document before its publication and distribution. The redaction mark typically appears as a black rectangle covering a block of text or images. The content after redaction will be permanently deleted from PDF documents, and you cannot undo the redaction action.
Blackout PDF vs Redact PDF
Because blackout and redaction are both black rectangles that cover part of text or graphics in the form, they can easily be thought of as the same operation. Actually, they are two completely different things.
Blackout simply draws a black shape over the unnecessary text using the annotation tool, making the covered content visually unavailable. But in fact, people can still copy and paste the blackened-out text directly and it is simple to remove this black rectangle.
However, redaction not only blacks out the text and images but also permanently removes them from the PDF document. The process is irretrievable, and viewers will have no idea of the redacted content.
Thus, before starting to redact on a PDF, you’d better save a copy of the original PDF document.
How to Redact Information on PDF Securely?
Redaction is a file security measure, so choosing a reliable PDF redaction tool for file safety is crucial. The first thought is usually Adobe Acrobat. But for novices, this software is quite complex and requires a long learning curve. And its high cost has discouraged a majority of people. Never mind. A reputable PDF redaction tool is made for you.
Cisdem PDFMaster is a dedicated PDF editor application that combines affordable price benefits, powerful editing features and ease of use. Its built-in redact function enables users to permanently remove sensitive text, images, pages, and any other material they don’t want from PDF without difficulties. This operation won’t change the formatting of PDF. Besides, it provides many options to modify the redaction colour to better blend with the page background.
Better yet, it can do much more with PDF documents, including but not limited to editing the existing text and image content in PDF, performing OCR conversions between PDF and various other formats, creating and filling out PDF forms, manipulating PDF pages and making annotations. In a word, it must be a boon for your workflow.
Now have a quick view on how to redact information on PDF on Windows and Mac.
Step 1 : The first step is to open the Cisdem PDFMaster program and open a PDF file with it.
Step 2 : Then you need to Choose Redact tab from the top menu bar.
Step 3 : Now, Drag your cursor to draw a rectangle on the content you’d like to redact.
Step 4 : Click Redact Properties to customize the redaction mark colour and enter the overlay text if needed.
Step 5 : When the redaction is done, click Apply to save the changes.
Protect PDF Besides Removing Sensitive Information from PDF
Apart from removing sensitive or confidential data from PDF through redaction, there are still multiple ways to protect PDF files:
Add open or permission password to restrict unauthorized access and edits; Create a digital signature to the PDF to guarantee the authenticity of the signed document; Add watermarks on a PDF to protect against copyright infringement and secure the document.
Wrapping Up
This was the tutorial on what does redact mean in PDF and how to redact a PDF. As described before, you must be aware of the difference between black out and redact. Some PDF tools on the market claim to be able to redact sensitive information, but it turns out that they just cover up the text. To make sure that the private information in your PDF is secure, it is essential to pick out a professional PDF redaction tool like Cisdem PDFMaster to redact a PDF or do any other tasks mentioned above to protect PDF files.
