Box redaction lets you draw rectangles over any area of a document page to mark it for redaction. Use it for content you can't select as text: photographs, signatures, handwritten notes, logos, charts, and diagrams.
Switching to the box redaction tool
After entering redaction mode in the PDF viewer, switch to the box tool in the redaction toolbar. Your cursor changes to a crosshair, indicating you can draw rectangular redaction areas on the document.
Drawing a PDF redaction box
Click and hold at one corner of the area you want to redact, then drag to the opposite corner. Release to place the box. A colored overlay marks it as a pending redaction. Draw as many boxes as you need on any page of the document.
When you apply the redaction, everything within the rectangle is permanently removed from the file: text, images, and any other content inside the drawn area. The box doesn't need to align with text boundaries, making it ideal for visual content that text selection can't capture.
Resizing and repositioning boxes
Before applying, you can adjust any pending box. Click a box to select it, then drag corner or edge handles to resize. Drag the center to reposition it on the page. This lets you fine-tune each redaction area to cover exactly the content you need to remove.
To remove a box entirely, select it and press the delete key, or remove it from the annotation sidebar. All adjustments stay non-destructive until you click Apply.
When to use box redaction for images and signatures
Box redaction is your best choice for removing visual content that can't be highlighted as text. Common use cases:
- Photographs and headshots in personnel files or identification documents
- Handwritten notes, annotations, or margin comments
- Company letterheads, logos, and branding elements
- Signatures and initials on contracts or forms
- Charts, graphs, and diagrams containing sensitive data
- Scanned content where text selection isn't available
Combine box redaction with text selection on the same document. For example, use text selection to redact names and numbers in the body, then use box redaction to cover a photograph or signature block on the same page.