How to redact a PDF on a PC.

Protect your sensitive information when you share PDFs. Learn how to redact both visible and hidden information from a PDF on a PC.

From business contracts to tax forms and financial documents, you often have to share PDFs containing sensitive information. You can easily redact text and images from any PDF document on a PC with Adobe Acrobat.

First, you’ll need a PDF file to work on. If your document exists only on paper, start by scanning it to a PDF. Once you’ve digitized the document, follow this guide to learn how to redact your PDF.

Redact text and images from a PDF on PC.

1. Launch Acrobat. Go into the Tools menu and select Redact.
2. Choose the blue button labeled “Select a file” and locate your PDF.
3. Select the redaction type you need from the Mark For Redaction dropdown menu.

• The Text & Images option works for words and graphics.
• The Page option blacks out entire pages, and Find Text lets you find specific phrases.

1. Once you’ve marked all the redactions on the page, select Apply.
2. Save your file as a separate PDF document. This is important because the Redact tool permanently removes all marked content.

You can also select Remove Hidden Information if you need to wipe non-visible identifying data, like metadata and hidden PDF objects.

Only want a few select people to view your PDF? Be sure to password-protect your PDF on top of redacting important information. Once you’re done, you can safely share or print the document.

Can you unredact a PDF on a PC?

Through Adobe Acrobat, you can take away a redaction on a PDF using your PC.

You can easily view blacked-out text in your PDF by following these steps:

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat.
2. Go to the Document menu.
3. Click Examine Document. Adobe Acrobat will then scan the PDF and give you a checklist of items that you are able to remove by clicking them.
4. Choose the Preview button to see the hidden text.
5. Choose the Show Preview button at the bottom of the dialogue box.
6. Choose Show Hidden Text from the document preview.
7. From there, you can scroll through the pages of your PDF by using the double-arrow buttons in the navigation bar.
8. Select the text from the PDF by pressing Crtl+A to include hidden words and Ctrl+C to copy the text. Press Ctrl+V to paste the text into a Word document.
9. Your text will now be transferred to your Word document, including the blacked-out text.

How to blur content in a PDF on PC.

You can start your two-week trial with Acrobat Pro to set the default looks for your redaction marks.

1. Open the PDF in Acrobat, then do one of the following:

• Choose Tools > Redact.
• On the Edit Menu, choose Redact Text & Images.
  The Redact toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.

1. Click the dropdown, and choose Properties. The Redaction Tool Properties dialog box will appear.
2. In the Appearance tab, select the options you want to change, then click OK.
3. Click the Redacted Area Fill Color icon, and select a fill color from the color palette for the boxes that replace removed items. Choose No Color to leave the redacted area blank.
4. Select Use Overlay Text if you want to select the custom text or redaction code options. Select the font, size, and text alignment.
5. Select Custom Text, and type the text you want to appear in the redacted area.
6. Select Redaction Code, and then either select a code within an existing set or click Edit Code to define a new code set or a new code. (See “Create redaction codes and code sets.”)
7. In the Redaction Mark Appearance area, click the Outline Color icon, Fill Color icon, or both. Select a color from the color palette for the images and text you mark for redaction. Move the slider to adjust the opacity of the color. Choose No Color to leave the selected area blank.

Do more with PDFs on PC devices.

In addition to PDF redactions, Adobe Acrobat has all the tools you need for document creation and editing purposes to make your PDFs and other documents presentation ready. More than five million organizations around the world rely on Adobe for their document creation and editing needs. Your needs are always evolving, and the way you work will evolve with them. That’s why Adobe will continue to improve and add new features to accommodate all of your document-related needs.

Whether you are at home, the office, or somewhere in between, Acrobat is there for you virtually anywhere on any device. Discover what more you can do with Acrobat to convert, edit, and share PDFs.