Legal redaction
Redact discovery productions, contracts and filings
Inadequate redaction is a well-documented source of legal embarrassment: black boxes that can be copied and pasted away, or metadata that reveals the author. RedactSnap flattens every page and clears the document info fields, and the file never leaves your machine.
Drop a PDF here, or click to choose
PDF, PNG or JPG
Opens in your browser. The file is never uploaded.
Common legal redactions
Personal identifiers
Names, SSNs, phone numbers and emails of parties, witnesses and minors are flagged automatically.
Financial account numbers
Card numbers are detected. Add account numbers as custom terms.
Privileged passages
Draw boxes over privileged or confidential paragraphs, and log them on your privilege log.
Deal terms in contracts
Hide pricing, counterparties or commercial terms before sharing a contract as a precedent.
Redacting a production set
- 1
Open each PDF locally. Client documents stay inside your firm's environment.
- 2
Run Smart Scan and add matter-specific custom terms, such as a client code name.
- 3
Box privileged passages manually.
- 4
Export flattened PDFs and check the verification view before you produce them.
Why flattening matters for court filings
Many court rules require filers to redact SSNs, financial account numbers, minors' names and birth dates. In US federal courts, for example, this is Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2. If the underlying text survives in the PDF, the redaction fails. Flattening removes the text layer so there is nothing under the box.
Confidential matters, no third-party upload
Uploading client documents to a free web tool can raise confidentiality and engagement-letter questions. RedactSnap keeps processing on the device, which is easier to justify to a client or a general counsel.
Frequently asked questions
Does the output keep searchable text?
No. The export flattens each page to an image, which is what makes the redaction irreversible. If you need searchable productions, run OCR on the redacted output afterwards.
Can I redact Bates-numbered documents?
Yes. Existing Bates stamps stay visible as long as you don't draw over them.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. RedactSnap reads the PDF with your browser's File API and processes it in memory on your device. There is no upload endpoint and no server-side copy of your document. You can confirm this by opening your browser's network tab while you redact.
Is the redaction permanent or just a black box on top?
Permanent. A black rectangle drawn in an ordinary PDF editor can be copied around or deleted, leaving the text underneath readable. RedactSnap exports every page as a flattened image, so the original text layer, fonts and hidden objects are not carried into the file you download.