SAR and redaction

How to redact a PDF properly

Understand why covering text is not redaction, then check your exported PDF before disclosure.

RedactNinja guide. Updated 23 September 2026.

Redaction is the removal of information from the copy you will share. A black shape that makes a name invisible on screen is not, by itself, evidence that the name has been removed. The underlying text, comments or other objects may still exist.

A fictional example

Suppose a report says, "Amelia Carter attended with Noah Bennett." Your review decision is to keep Amelia's information and remove Noah's. An ordinary drawing box over Noah's name might hide it visually while leaving it available to search or copy. Use the redaction feature, not the shape, highlight or watermark tool.

Prepare your review

1. Keep an untouched source file. Work on a separate output and give it a name that distinguishes it from the original.
2. Open the SAR workspace for case evidence or a disclosure involving several documents. Choose quick redaction for an individual supported document.
3. Add the known names and variants to look for. Add approved exceptions to the keep-visible terms, and resolve conflicts rather than assuming a name always has the same meaning.
4. Scan the document and review each suggested occurrence in context. Add manual redaction areas where automatic detection missed something.

Look beyond the main text

Check headers, footers, repeated tables, image captions and scanned pages. A person's name can appear inside a photograph or screenshot even when the page also has selectable text. Read the whole page, not just the suggestions list.

Review any warnings about extraction, unsupported content or unfinished pages. Metadata and attachments need attention too: changing the visible page is not necessarily the same as cleaning every part of a document.

Check the exported file

1. Open the downloaded result, not the source or the editor preview.
2. Inspect every page, including the boundaries of each redaction area.
3. Search for the exact names and variants you intended to remove. Try selecting or copying text around the redaction.
4. Check document properties and attachments where relevant, and confirm that the correct pages and intended visible information remain.

Search and copy checks can expose a problem, but passing them is not a complete safety test. Some sensitive information is an image; some text cannot be extracted. Technical verification does not prove that a reviewer found every sensitive detail. Do not disclose an output with a failed check or an unresolved warning.

For lists of people, see importing names from CSV. For the wider case process, use the SAR checklist.