Black boxes don’t delete text. See what’s still inside a PDF — metadata, hidden text, attachments — and remove it. Always free.
Users
35
+25 in 30 days
Rating
0.0 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
0
0 in 30 days
Store rank
#125K
#104K among extensions
Version
1.1.1
updated 25 Sep 2026
Users
monthly, 2 months
Latest, 20 Oct 2026:35 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 2 months
Latest, 20 Oct 2026:0 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month
The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.
About PDF Redact & Metadata Remover — Offline, No Upload
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What's new in 1.1.1
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▼ Fixes
◆ Japanese interface showed English in several places
The zoom level in the toolbar, error messages when an operation fails, file type names in the save dialog, and notices for password-protected PDFs were left in English.
◆ The save dialog did not follow a language change
File type names kept the previous language until the page was reloaded.
▼ Under the hood
Internal processing was reduced in size.
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A black box is not redaction
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Draw a black rectangle over a name in a PDF and the name is still there — selectable, searchable, sitting in the file. People have leaked contracts, court filings and personnel records this way.
This extension deletes the text itself. And before you send a file, it shows you what else is hiding inside it.
Everything runs in your browser. No upload, no account, no server. The good free alternatives ask you to install desktop software or run a Docker container. This one is a browser extension.
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Redact — properly
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▼ The text is actually removed
Drag a box, or select the text itself. The underlying text is deleted from the PDF's internal data. It is not a black rectangle drawn on top.
▼ When images or vector artwork are underneath
If the area covers non-text drawing, the page is rasterised instead, so nothing is left behind.
▼ You confirm before anything happens
A confirmation step shows you exactly which characters will be removed.
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Inspect — see what is still in the file
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Open a PDF and the extension tells you how many items are hiding in it. Inspecting and removing are both free.
◆ Document properties
Author, title, producing software, timestamps
◆ XMP metadata
A separate channel from document properties. Tools that clean one often miss the other
◆ Annotation text
Comments and author names, including annotations flagged as hidden
◆ Form field values and XFA
◆ Structure tag alternate text
Read by screen readers and extraction tools
◆ Page thumbnails
These can still show the page as it was before editing
◆ Application-private data
Left behind by the software that created the file
◆ Embedded file attachments and bookmarks
You choose what to remove. Attachments and bookmarks are kept by default, because removing them changes the document itself.
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Everything else it does
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▼ View and navigate
Continuous scroll / thumbnails / zoom / fit-to-width / fit-to-page / full-text search
Japanese, Chinese and Korean documents work out of the box — character maps and fonts are bundled, nothing is fetched from a CDN.
▼ Annotate
Highlight / freehand pen / text boxes / rectangles / ellipses / lines / arrows
Select, move, resize and edit anything you have placed. Undo and redo are supported.
▼ Sign
Draw your signature, or type it in one of four handwriting styles. Place it anywhere, at any size.
▼ Organise pages
Merge / split / extract / reorder / rotate / delete
Drag pages in the sidebar to reorder them.
▼ OCR
Read scanned pages and add an invisible text layer, so the page becomes searchable, selectable and redactable. English and Japanese.
The OCR engine is bundled. Your scans are not sent anywhere.
▼ Compress and export
Re-encode embedded images to reduce file size. Export pages as images, or the text as a .txt file.
▼ Save, download and print
Always free. No watermark, no account, no page limit.
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Why one permission matters
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Open chrome://extensions and look at what this extension is allowed to do. It asks for "storage" and nothing else — used to remember your interface settings and any signature you choose to keep.
▼ What it does not request
✕ host_permissions
It cannot read or change any website
✕ content_scripts
It injects no code into any page
✕ tabs / activeTab / webRequest / scripting / downloads
▼ You can check for yourself
That is not a promise. It is in the manifest, and Chrome enforces it.
It also works with your network switched off. Turn off Wi-Fi and open a PDF — everything still works, because nothing was ever being sent.
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What it does not do
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✕ Conversion to Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Those need a document engine that cannot run in a browser
✕ Digital certificate signing or timestamping
✕ Cloud sync, sharing or accounts
△ Encrypted PDFs
They can be viewed, but editing requires a copy with the protection removed
△ Redacting text only removes the text
If an image under the area shows the same information, choose the rasterise option instead — the extension tells you when this applies
▼ Disclaimer
Redaction and sanitisation are aids to detection and processing, not a guarantee of compliance.
Verify results using your organisation's own procedures, and keep a copy of the original file.
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Privacy
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No data is collected. No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, no third-party SDK.
Privacy policy
https://sparklabtech.jp/privacy
Questions
support@sparklabtech.jp