If you want to send a PDF that contains confidential information, you can redact the relevant passages. In the following, we will show you how to protect sensitive data in PDFs.
There are multiple possibilities...
You can use PDF viewers such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader to redact sensitive content , but this feature is only available in the paid version. Depending on which software you are using, this can cost up to € 20. If you don't want to spend any money, you can also use online services , which are usually free.
However, if you intend to redact highly sensitive data from your PDF documents, you should not use an online service. If you upload your files to a website, they are available on their server and can theoretically be accessed by the website operator. So if you don't want to spend money on redacting or upload your PDFs to a website, you only have the option of censoring your PDFs yourself, e.g. with the help of Paint, or of printing them out and scanning them again by hand after redaction. Otherwise, the simplest and cheapest method is through online offers:
How to redact PDF online
We use "pdfzorro" as an example in our instructions, but there are also other websites that can be used to redact PDFs. Also, you have to note that you have to convert the redacted PDF to an image file and then to a PDF again. This prevents the text under the black rectangle from being simply copied, but you also lose the OCR on your PDF. Follow our step-by-step instructions or take a look at the brief instructions ..
1st step:
Call up this website in your browser: https://www.pdfzorro.com/ . There click on the " Upload " button . Then select your PDF file and open it. 2nd step:
Now click on the " start PDF Editor " button . 3rd step:
Then select the side of your file to be edited on the left. To blacken the text, click the appropriate place with your mouse and drag the black box to the desired size. 4th step:
If you have redacted all the required passages, click on " Save " above to save the changes. Then go to " Finish / Download " to download your file. 5th step:
Then select " Download to your PC " and the redacted PDF document will be downloaded. 6th step:
Now go to the website https://jpg2pdf.com/de/ and click on the " Choose " button . Then select the edited PDF that you just redacted and downloaded. Then click on " Download ". 7th step:
Now switch to " JPG to PDF " at the top of the website . Then use the " Select " button to select the JPG file that you downloaded one step earlier in order to convert it back into a PDF. Then click on " Download ". 8th step:
You should now have a PDF file in which the text you selected has been redacted and the text underneath cannot simply be marked and copied. Your document is safe. quick start Guide
- Open the website https://www.pdfzorro.com/ . There click on " Upload " and select your file. Then click " start PDF Editor " to start editing.
- Now select a page of the document on the left that you want to edit. Then click in the appropriate place and drag the black box to the desired size to blacken the text .
- When you are done, click on " Save " at the top left and then select " Finish / Download ". Then click on " Download to your PC " and the file will be downloaded.
- Now open https://jpg2pdf.com/de/ and select the PDF file you have just edited with " Select " . Then click on " Download ".
- Then select the JPG file that you have just downloaded on the " JPG to PDF " website via " Select " . Then click on " Download ".