Guides
Guides
These are written for the moment before you attach a PDF to an email. Each one uses the fake sample files on the playground where a concrete file helps, and says what HidePDF Content actually does to that file: render the page, paint over the fields you kept, and rebuild a PDF with no text layer.
Read the one that matches the document in front of you. If you only have time for two, start with why a black box fails, then the checklist for proving a file is really redacted. None of this is legal advice. If a court, a bank, or a regulator has told you how redaction must be done, follow that instruction.
How to redact a PDF properly
A full pass over the India demo invoice: what to leave checked, why the rupee total stays visible, and when the download is still the original file.
Why black boxes do not hide PDF text
A rectangle in Preview changes the picture. The letters underneath are still operators in the file, and copy-paste still works.
Removing personal data from a PDF
What to strip before you forward an old proposal or contract, and which names the detector will not see.
Redacting a scanned PDF with OCR
Phone photos and flat scans have no text layer. OCR runs only on sparse pages, and it misreads characters.
How to check a PDF is really redacted
Search, copy from the box, pdftotext, metadata, and the header this API sets when it refuses an unsafe file.
Removing metadata from a PDF
Author, title, and old revisions live outside the page. Rasterising drops them. It also drops selectable text you may have wanted to keep.
Sharing a bank statement safely
What a letting agent actually needs, and why the account number and the closing balance are different decisions.
Sharing a payslip safely
The US demo pay stub: hide the SSN and the test card, leave gross pay visible unless the money itself is the secret.
The tool is on the home page. Endpoint parameters are in the API reference. How uploads are handled is on the privacy page.