Redact safely

Redacting in Sopycat doesn't just draw a black box over the words. It takes what is under the box out of the file, then reads the page again to make sure it's gone. If it can't be sure, it doesn't save.

What happens when you redact

When you save a redaction, Sopycat does all of this for each box:

1. Removes the text under the box from the page.
2. Blacks out the parts of any picture under the box, in the picture itself.
3. Removes any comments and form fields under the box.
4. Draws a black box in their place.
5. Reads the page's text again and checks that nothing under the box is left.

If some text is still there, for example because the page was built in an unusual way, Sopycat turns that whole page into a picture of itself with the area painted black, and checks again. The log marks those pages Page flattened. A flattened page looks the same but its words can no longer be selected or searched.

If the page still can't be checked, nothing is saved and you'll see: "The words could not be removed from this file. Nothing was saved." Try again after making the document searchable (OCR), or redact the page as a picture.

When it works, you'll see "Redacted and checked: the words and picture data under the boxes are gone from the file."

Redact by drawing boxes

Open a PDF › Mark up › Redact

1. Open the PDF and choose Mark up, then Redact.
2. Drag a box over everything you want removed. Add as many boxes as you need, on any page.
3. Check each box. Until you save, you can move or resize a box, or remove it with its ×.
4. Press Save. The boxes are applied and checked.

Find and redact words or patterns

Open a PDF › More › Find and redact…

Use this to remove every place a name, account number or email address appears, without hunting through the pages. You can also open it from the Mark up tab's Find words or patterns to redact… link.

1. Type in Words to find, or pick one of the Ready-made patterns: Email addresses, Phone numbers, Social security numbers, Card numbers, Dates or IBANs.
2. Tick Match case or Whole words if you need them.
3. Press Find. Every place it appears is listed.
4. Untick any you want to keep. All and None tick or untick the whole list.
5. Press Redact with the number of places, for example Redact 12 places.

Find and redact applies straight away, as a new version. If you have other edits waiting, they are saved first.

Find something more exact

Tick Pattern (regular expression) to search with a pattern instead of plain words. For example, the pattern \d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4} finds numbers written like 123-45-6789. If you don't know patterns, the ready-made ones cover the common cases.

Redacting scanned documents

A scan is a picture of a page, so it has no words for Find and redact to search. You have two choices:

• Draw boxes on the Mark up tab. The picture under each box is blacked out in the file.
• Make the scan searchable first, then use Find and redact: More › Make it searchable (OCR)…. Text recognition is English only, and it can misread words, so look over the pages as well.

See what has been redacted

Open a PDF › More › Redaction log…

The log lists everything removed from the document, with the Page, When, By, what was Removed and How (taken out of the file, or page flattened). The menu shows how many entries there are, for example Redaction log (3)….

Press Save as CSV… to keep the log as a spreadsheet file. The log also goes out with every copy you make with Save a copy….

Share the redacted file

Open a PDF › More › Save a copy…

Save a copy writes the current version of the PDF, with its redaction log, to a folder you choose. Send that copy.

Before you send a redacted PDF

• Read every page of the saved copy. Check headers, footers, stamps and small print.
• Remember that names can also appear in comments and attachments. Check More › Comments… and More › Attachments….
• Search the saved copy for the words you removed. They should not be found.