Redaction · in Starkive PDF for Mac and Windows
Black it out.
Gone for real.
A black box drawn over text can hide it on screen and leave it sitting in the file. Starkive takes the words out, so nobody can copy, search or pull them back.
- Removed, not covered
- Original untouched
- On your machine
Marking is free. Saving the redacted copy is part of the one-time $1.99 unlock.
On MacThe problem
A black box isn’t redaction.
This is how private details leak out of “redacted” PDFs every year.
The text is still there
In many tools a redaction is a black rectangle drawn on top. The words underneath stay in the file.
Copy and paste undoes it
Select across the box, copy, paste. Out comes everything you thought you’d hidden.
Hidden text leaks too
Words under an image, drawn white on white, or in an invisible scan layer can all be read by anyone who looks.
What it does
Mark it. Remove it.
Draw over what should go, and Starkive saves a copy with that content taken out of the file.
Content removed, not covered
What's under your marks is gone from the saved copy, so it can't be selected, searched or extracted.
Hidden text counts
Text you can't see on the page is removed along with the text you can, which is exactly where simple redaction leaks.
Your original is safe
Redaction always writes a new file. The PDF you started with is never changed.
On Mac
It finds things for you.
Starkive PDF for Mac suggests what to redact, double-checks what you might have missed, and won’t save a half-finished job.
Suggested redactions
Find things to redact spots names, places, organizations, email addresses, and phone, card and account numbers. Nothing is ticked until you tick it.
It checks what you missed
Before you export, it searches the document for the same wording anywhere else and warns you if it's still there.
All or nothing
Marked pages are rebuilt as images with the words gone. If any marked page can't be redacted, nothing is saved at all.
On Windows
Keeps text when it safely can.
Starkive PDF for Windows picks the most precise way to remove each mark, and tells you which one it used.
A whole line marked
The marked text is deleted outright, and the rest of the page stays live, selectable text.
Part of a line marked
Removing only part of it would mean guessing. So that page is flattened to an image instead: lossy, but never leaky.
Judged by position
Content counts by where it sits, not whether you can see it, so text under an image or in a scan layer goes too.
Inside the sandbox
Like every PDF on Windows, the document is decoded in a locked-down process with no network and no access to your files.
Limits
What it costs to be sure.
A flattened page stops being text
A page rebuilt as an image still reads and prints, but it’s no longer searchable or selectable, and the file gets bigger. Run Make searchable on it afterwards to add a text layer back. That text is recognized from what’s still on the page, never from what was removed.
Questions
Good to know.
Can someone get the redacted words back?
Not from the redacted copy. The content under your marks is taken out of the file, so there's nothing left to select, search or extract. Keep your original somewhere safe, because that one still has everything.
Why did my page turn into an image?
Because that's how the words were removed for certain. On Mac, every marked page is rebuilt as an image. On Windows, a page becomes an image when a mark only covers part of a line. The page still reads and prints the same, but its text can't be selected any more.
Is my original file changed?
No. Redaction always saves a new copy, so a slip is never destructive.
Is redaction free?
Marking up a document is free, so you can try it on a real file. Saving the redacted copy is part of Starkive Studio's one-time $1.99 unlock.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. Redaction, the suggestions on Mac and everything else happen on your own machine.
Send it without the secrets.
Redaction comes with Starkive PDF in Starkive Studio on Mac and Windows.