Plainfile
PDF redaction that actually deletes — no uploads
2 followers
PDF redaction that actually deletes — no uploads
2 followers
Most "redaction" tools draw black boxes over text — anyone can copy it right back out. PlainFile removes the content from the PDF structure itself, entirely in your browser. No uploads, no accounts, no watermarks. And It's open source (AGPL).
Hi Product Hunt! 👋
I was hit by the quietkit idea then I realized that every free PDF redactor I tried either uploaded my file to someone's server or just drew black boxes over the text — leaving it fully copy-pasteable underneath. Real redaction failures happen because of exactly this.
So PlainFile does it differently:
• True deletion — MuPDF (compiled to WebAssembly) removes text, images and vector content from the actual PDF structure, then rebuilds the file from scratch: metadata, annotations, embedded files, JavaScript and outlines are stripped, no incremental save
• Auto-verification — after applying, the tool re-opens the result and re-extracts the text to confirm zero matches remain
• Zero uploads — everything runs in your browser. Open the network tab in devtools and watch: nothing leaves your machine
• Works offline after the first visit
You can search for terms (presets for SSN, email, phone, credit cards) or just draw rectangles. Free, no accounts, no watermarks, tested up to ~50 MB / 200 pages.
Honest limitation: no OCR yet — scanned documents (photos of text) can only be redacted by drawing boxes manually.
One disclosure: parts of the codebase were AI-assisted, and all of it was reviewed and tested by hand. The redaction pipeline is gated by a verification suite that has to pass on every change — for a redaction tool, "trust me" isn't good enough.
Fully open source (AGPL): GitHub
I'd genuinely love it if you tried to break it — if you find a PDF where text survives redaction, that's the bug I most want to hear about: Report a bug