Redaction tools are essential for anyone who needs to remove sensitive content including personal details or confidential information from digital documents. 

What exactly is redaction?

Redaction refers to the process of removing or obscuring information from a document or other type of communication. This is typically done to protect privacy, confidentiality, or security.

Redaction typically involves blacking out or otherwise obscuring text, images, or other content that is deemed sensitive or confidential. 

Redaction can be done manually by blacking out or whiting out sensitive information on a physical document or by editing electronic documents using software tools that allow users to obscure selected information.

‍How do you redact sensitive content electronically?

With PDF solution Drawboard PDF, you can select and redact any rectangle area on a document including text and images, or a combination of both. You can also use a specialized text redaction tool to precisely and easily select and redact text.

‍Here’s how to redact sensitive content using Drawboard PDF:

Using Drawboard PDF you can use the shortcut CTRL + r to enter redaction mode. From this state, you can hover over text to start redacting text or select any rectangle area on your PDF to redact whole sections of your PDF.

You can preview your redactions to see what your document will look like with your redactions prior to applying them and change the color of your redactions.

Check out our support article to learn more. Drawboard PDF's Redaction toolset is available to all Pro Plus and Pro Unlimited users on the Windows app. You can view Drawboard PDF Pro plans on our pricing page.

Is placing a black rectangle over content considered redaction?

It's important to note that simply adding a black rectangle over sensitive content on a digital document does not guarantee that the information is completely removed or secure, as there may be ways to uncover the hidden content. To securely and effectively remove sensitive content from a digital document, it's recommended to use a specialized electronic redaction tool like the one in Drawboard PDF.

The Drawboard PDF redaction tool doesn't just cover content, it removes all underlying content from the PDF itself. This means that once content is redacted, it can no longer be viewed, accessed or retrieved by anyone who views or interacts with the document. 

This tool is designed for anyone who handles sensitive or confidential information including legal professionals, government workers, financial services teams, healthcare providers and journalists.

‍Download Drawboard PDF today to start using electronic redaction. Drawboard PDF makes working with digital documents easy. Edit, store and mark up any PDF with ease, collaborate with others and get work done faster, without paper.