Redact a Bank Statement or Payslip — Properly

There is a specific way that redaction goes wrong, and it has caused real leaks at law firms, courts and newspapers. Someone opens a PDF, draws a black rectangle over a sensitive line, and saves. The rectangle is a new object painted on top — the original text is still in the file underneath. Anyone can select it, copy it out, or simply run a text extraction tool and read every word.

This tool does not do that. Each page is rendered to a flat image in your browser, your black boxes are painted into those pixels, and the exported PDF contains only the resulting images. There is no text layer left, so there is nothing underneath to recover. The trade-off is that the output is not searchable or selectable — which, for a document you are redacting, is the point.

It also reads the text layer before flattening, so it can highlight things that look like account numbers, IBANs, card numbers, emails and Italian tax codes. Treat that as a helpful first pass, not a guarantee: always look over the page yourself.

How to use this tool

Drop in the PDF or image. Multi-page PDFs are fine — thumbnails appear so you can work through each page.
Optionally press Find likely sensitive values. Anything matching an IBAN, card number, long digit run, sort code, email or Italian codice fiscale is highlighted in amber for review.
Drag across anything you want removed to place a black box. Do this for every page — boxes are per page, and the counter shows the running total.
Use Undo to remove the last box, or clear the page and start again. Tick the label option if you want the word REDACTED printed inside each box.
Download the redacted PDF. Every page is flattened to an image first, so the covered text is permanently gone from the file.
Open the result and try to select the hidden text. You will not be able to — that is how you know it worked.

Worked example

A bank statement for a rental application

A letting agent needs to see your salary arriving and your closing balance. They do not need your full account number, your card number, or a line-by-line record of where you shop. You black out the account and card numbers in the header and the individual transaction descriptions, leaving the credits from your employer and the balance visible. The agent gets exactly what they asked to verify, and nothing else.

A payslip where only the gross figure matters

A visa application requires proof of income. You keep your name, employer and gross annual figure, and black out your national insurance or tax number, your bank details and the deductions breakdown. Because the file is flattened, nobody downstream can lift the hidden numbers back out.

Common use cases

Bank statements sent for a mortgage, loan or rental application
Payslips supporting a visa, benefits claim or childcare application
Documents disclosed in a divorce, dispute or legal matter
Invoices and contracts shared with a third party who should not see the pricing
Utility bills used as proof of address, with the account number removed
Medical letters where only the dates and the clinic name are needed

Common mistakes

Using a PDF editor's highlight or rectangle tool — It draws a shape on top. The text stays in the file and can be selected, copied or extracted in seconds. This is the single most common cause of accidental disclosure.
Exporting to a format that keeps the text layer — If the output PDF still lets you select text where a black box is, the redaction is decorative. Always test by trying to select and copy the hidden area.
Redacting only the first page — Account numbers usually repeat in the header or footer of every page. Check all of them — the page counter here shows how many boxes you have placed in total.
Forgetting the metadata — A PDF's properties can carry your name, your software and the original filename. This tool clears the title, author and producer fields when it rebuilds the file.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from drawing a black box in a PDF reader?

A PDF reader adds an opaque shape as a new layer; the text object it covers is untouched and can be selected, copied or extracted with any text tool. Here, the page is converted to pixels before the box is applied, so the characters no longer exist in the file. Nothing can be recovered from them because there is nothing left to recover.

Is my bank statement uploaded to a server?

No. The PDF is opened, rendered, edited and rebuilt entirely inside your browser tab. There is no upload, no temporary storage and no processing queue. This matters more here than almost anywhere else on the site — a full bank statement is one of the most sensitive documents most people own.

Will the redacted PDF still be searchable?

No, and that is deliberate. Flattening every page to an image is what makes the redaction permanent. If you need a searchable document, redact first and run OCR afterwards in a separate tool — never the other way round.

How reliable is the automatic detection?

It is a pattern match against the text layer, useful for catching IBANs, card numbers, long digit sequences, sort codes, emails and Italian tax codes. It will miss things written unusually and will flag some harmless numbers. Always review the page yourself; the highlights are a starting point, not an approval.

Does it work on a scanned statement with no text layer?

Yes for redaction — you draw the boxes and export as normal. The automatic detection needs a text layer, so it will not find anything in a pure scan, and the button stays hidden.

Will the file get much bigger?

Usually somewhat larger, because text is replaced by JPEG images. Pages are exported at a resolution that stays readable while keeping the file reasonable to email. A typical multi-page statement stays comfortably within normal email limits.

Last updated 2026-09-15