Free
Remove text from a PDF
To remove text from a PDF with FontiaPDF, open it, click the line you don’t want and press the trash icon: when you download, that line is deleted from the page content, not just hidden. If you need to cover a whole area, such as a stamp or a block of details, use the whiteout tool under “Shapes”, which is also free.
Both options look the same on screen, but they do different things inside the file. If what you are removing is personal data, the difference matters.
A real example
An internal memo had a red line at the top reading “DRAFT — DO NOT DISTRIBUTE”, and the version going out had to ship without it. One click on the line selects it and brings up the floating toolbar; the trash icon deletes it. The “After” screenshot is the downloaded PDF: the draft notice is gone, and the rest of the memo keeps its text, fonts and layout.
Before
After
How to remove text from a PDF in 3 steps
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Upload the PDF
Open it in the editor, no account needed. Files up to 50 MB are supported.
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Delete or cover
Select a line and press 🗑 in the floating toolbar (or “Delete” in the right-click menu). To cover an area, open “Shapes”, choose “Whiteout” and drag a rectangle over it; its color is sampled from the surrounding paper.
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Download and check
Hit “Download PDF”. If you removed sensitive information, check the downloaded file as described below before you send it.
Trash icon or whiteout: what stays inside the file
The trash icon takes the line out of the page content: in the downloaded PDF that text no longer exists. Whiteout, on the other hand, draws a paper-colored rectangle on top; the text is still underneath, untouched, and anyone can select it, copy it or find it with their viewer’s search.
- Use the trash icon for real text that has to go: a name, an amount, a draft notice, a duplicated line.
- Use whiteout for things that aren’t editable text, when only the look of the page matters: a stamp, a scanned signature, a smudge or part of an image.
- To change text, you don’t need to delete it and retype it: click the line and type; the editor removes the original just like the trash icon does.
- A whiteout can be adjusted before you download: select it to move it, resize it with its handle or delete it.
Before you send a document with deleted details
If you removed personal or confidential information, check the downloaded file, not what the editor shows on screen:
- Open it and search for the deleted word (Ctrl+F works in almost any viewer). If it turns up, the editor could only cover that line, and it told you on download with “In N text item(s) the original could not be removed from the PDF…”.
- Select all the text on the page and paste it into a plain text editor: it is the quickest way to see what is still under a whiteout.
- Look for the detail in every form it might take: on other pages, in capitals, abbreviated, with or without accents (to the editor’s search, “Muller” and “Müller” are different words).
- Check the document properties in your viewer: the title, author or subject may hold the same detail, and FontiaPDF copies them into the downloaded PDF as they are.
- Keep in mind what the editor doesn’t clean up: bookmarks, comments, file attachments and text that is part of an image.
When what you want gone isn’t a line
- A word inside a line: click the line and delete the word with your keyboard, as in a word processor; the rest is rewritten in its own font.
- A paragraph: the editor treats each line separately, so you delete it line by line.
- A detail repeated across many pages: “Search” (Ctrl+F) with “Replace all” swaps it in one go for something neutral, such as “Test Name”.
- A whole page: open “Pages” and delete it, which is free too; the only thing you can’t do is delete the document’s only page.
- A document image, such as a logo or a photo: click it and accept the notice with “Edit images”, because this means sending the PDF to our server, where it is processed in memory and discarded; then delete it with the trash icon.
What’s preserved and what isn’t
Preserved
- With the trash icon, the line is taken out of the page content: it disappears and can no longer be selected, copied or searched.
- Nothing else is touched: other lines, images and pages stay as they were.
- While you are still in the editor, Ctrl+Z brings back a deleted line.
Limits
- Whiteout only covers: whatever is underneath stays in the PDF, where it could be copied or extracted.
- If, in a PDF with an unusual encoding, the editor can’t pinpoint the line reliably, it doesn’t delete blindly: it covers the line with a paper-colored box and warns you on download. In that case the original text is still in the file.
- The gap isn’t filled: surrounding lines don’t move up.
- In a scanned PDF, recognize the text with OCR first: then you can delete its words and the editor covers them with the paper color (except on pages the PDF stores rotated), but the original image is still inside the file.
Free or Premium
Free
20 exports a day, no sign-up and no watermark.
- Delete lines of text
- Whiteout
- Remove, move or resize document images
- Highlight and draw rectangles or lines
Premium
Unlimited exports and extra features.
- Unlimited exports
- Reorder, duplicate and extract pages from the panel
- Password-protect the PDF
Frequently asked questions
Does whiteout really delete the text?
No. It covers the text with an opaque rectangle, but the original text is still inside the PDF. To remove it, select the line and delete it with the trash icon.
Can you tell where the deleted text was?
With the trash icon, no: the line disappears and whatever was behind it on the page shows through, although the gap isn’t filled. Whiteout is a single-color rectangle: on plain paper it blends in, but over a photo, a pattern or a gradient the patch shows.
Can I use this to redact a document?
Only if you use the trash icon and check the result. FontiaPDF is not a certified redaction tool and doesn’t clean metadata or other hidden data in the file, so for legal or highly sensitive documents always review the downloaded PDF.
Is removing text free?
Yes. Deleting text, using whiteout, removing document images, deleting pages, and highlighting or drawing colored rectangles and lines are all free, with 20 exports a day and no sign-up or watermark.
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