Most "redacted" PDFs still have the text sitting under the black box — copy‑paste and it's back. BlackBar rasterizes every page, so the words are physically gone. And your file never leaves your browser.
One click — Auto‑detect finds and destroys every SSN, email, phone and card number.
The problem
Drawing a black rectangle in Acrobat or Preview doesn't remove the text — it just hides it. Courts, law firms and government agencies have leaked redacted documents this way for years.
The text is still there, underneath the box. Select‑all → copy → paste and the "hidden" name, SSN or figure comes straight back out. Automated tools scrape it in seconds.
Each page is rasterized to a flat image with the redactions burned in. The output PDF has no text layer at all — there is nothing left under the box to recover.
How it works
It opens in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server — processing happens entirely on your device.
Drag boxes by hand, click Auto‑detect to catch every SSN/card/email, or type a name to redact every occurrence at once.
Get a flattened PDF with the text permanently gone — plus an optional audit certificate of what was removed.
Features
Pages are rasterized so redacted text is destroyed, not hidden. Verified: zero recoverable text under the box.
One click finds every SSN, email, phone, credit card (Luhn‑checked), IBAN, IP, and AU tax/Medicare number.
Type a name, case number or account ID and black out every occurrence across the whole document at once.
Drop a stack of PDFs, auto‑redact them all, and download one ZIP — with a manifest of every file processed.
Download a signed‑off log of what was redacted, when, and by what method — for your compliance trail.
No upload, no account, no network calls. The whole app is one file you can run with your Wi‑Fi switched off.
Privacy by design
Redaction tools that upload your file are asking you to trust a stranger's server with your most sensitive documents. BlackBar can't leak them, because it never sends them anywhere.
Stay in the loop
The redactor is free to use right now. Drop your email and we'll tell you the moment Pro (batch, all-pages, certificates) is live — and send new features as they ship. No spam.
Would you pay $29 for this? Hit reply on the first email and tell us — it genuinely decides what we build next.
Pricing
No subscription. Buy it once, it works forever — even offline.
FAQ
Correct. BlackBar runs entirely in your browser using local JavaScript. There is no server to send anything to — you can literally disconnect from the internet and it still works.
A black box in most editors is drawn on top of the text, which stays selectable underneath. BlackBar rasterizes the whole page to an image, so the output PDF contains no text layer at all — the redacted content is gone, not hidden.
Social Security numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, credit‑card numbers (validated with the Luhn checksum so it doesn't flag random order numbers), bank IBANs, IP addresses, and Australian tax file & Medicare numbers.
Auto‑detect and Find need a text layer, so on a pure scan they won't find text automatically — but you can still draw redaction boxes by hand, and the output is fully flattened. Automatic OCR for scans is on the roadmap.
All pages (Free covers the first two), no watermark, batch processing of many files into one ZIP, and downloadable audit certificates. It's a one‑time $29 — no subscription.