PDFGym
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Check a PDF for redaction leaks

or drop one here

What this check can find

Opaque dark rectangles with selectable text underneath, plus document metadata, annotation text, attachments and hidden layers that need review.

It does not certify a PDF as safe. Unusual covers and words stored only inside images can require a manual review.

Choose a PDF first.

Open a PDF whose sensitive parts were covered with black boxes and learn whether any selectable text survives underneath. The check reads the drawing instructions, outlines the cover boxes it recognizes, and shows recovered text in full, alongside metadata, annotation text, attachments and hidden layers worth review. Nothing is changed and the file never leaves this tab.

The disclosure file a colleague already blacked out

This page judges other people's black boxes, including your own from last month. If a file arrives with covered text and must go further, run it here before it travels.

Say a colleague sends Disclosure-Q3-redacted.pdf for publication: fourteen pages, black boxes over every customer name. It looks clean. You drop it here on a Tuesday morning and press Check for redaction leaks. The verdict reads Leaks found: live text remains under 6 cover boxes, with the names spelled out in the page evidence. The boxes were drawn in a standard editor; the words survived underneath. Publication waits.

The report counts Pages inspected, Dark cover boxes and Boxes with live text, then shows page evidence: each recognized box with any recovered text in full, so you see exactly what a copy drag would steal. Other places to review lists document metadata, annotation text, attachments and hidden layers that need human eyes. A clear run says No leak found by these checks and reminds you it does not certify the PDF as safe.

The parser recognizes opaque filled rectangles; a black photograph, an exotic clipping path or a cover built from many small shapes may not register as one box. Text burned into scanned images is pixels, not instructions, and stays out of reach. Those boundaries are stated in the report: read them as part of the verdict.

Four steps from suspicion to verdict

  1. Choose a PDF

    Press Choose a PDF or drop the file onto the page. The file is read, never changed; locked files are refused, so open them with Unlock PDF first.

  2. Press Check for redaction leaks

    One button starts the pass over every page. Drawing instructions are scanned for cover boxes while the text layer beneath each one is compared.

  3. Read the verdict

    Leaks found names the count of boxes with live text and shows the recovered words; No leak found by these checks means none of the recognized boxes leaked.

  4. Review the rest

    Walk the page evidence and Other places to review, then read the stated limits. Check another PDF starts the next file; there is no download because nothing is produced.

Clean verdicts that mislead, and how to read them

No leak found by these checks is a scope statement, not a certificate: boxes the parser cannot recognize were never tested. An all-image page with photographed black bars reports nothing to find, yet the shapes stay readable. Treat unusual covers as untested and rebuild them with Redact PDF.

Read every verdict like this:

A leak verdict with nothing visible in the evidence usually points outside the page: annotation text, metadata or an attachment. Open Other places to review before concluding the pages are clean. And check the file that travels, not an earlier draft: match the filename and page count first, and after a real redaction check the -redacted download itself.

When checking is not the job

This tool reports; it never repairs. Leaked words come out only by rebuilding the pages in Redact PDF, then checking the fresh download again. Do not paint more boxes over a leaking file and recheck: stacked covers still leak.

When the file needs cleaning beyond boxes, author names, software trails, hidden layers, follow a clean verdict with Remove PDF metadata or a Privacy scan. When nobody should open the file at all without permission, Password protect PDF locks the checked copy.

Short answers about checking redactions

The checker found text I cannot see. Where is it?
In the text layer under the box: select the page and drag through the black rectangle to feel it. The evidence panel quotes the exact recovered words with their page.
Can I check a scanned PDF?
The check runs, but text burned into images is pixels the parser cannot read. Only selectable text under recognized vector boxes is tested.
Does a clear verdict mean the file is safe to publish?
No. It means none of the recognized boxes leaked. Unusual covers, image text and unlisted hiding places stay outside the verdict; read the stated limits.
Why was my locked file refused?
The check reads raw drawing instructions, which encryption scrambles. Open the file with Unlock PDF first, then check the open copy.
How is this different from Redact PDF?
This page diagnoses; Redact PDF destroys. Check first to find leaks, rebuild the pages there, then check the download again to confirm.

More checks and fixes in the same tab

Everything below runs in the browser with no account and verifies its own work. Diagnose here, destroy there, scrub and lock before sending.