How to White Out a PDF
To white out a PDF, draw a white box over the part you want to hide, type new text on top if you need it, and save. PDFDEN's free PDF Editor does it in your browser, with no signup and no upload. White-out hides content from view but does not delete it, so for anything private you should redact instead.
PDF Editor: Add text, images, shapes and white-out. Free, and your file never leaves your device.
Open PDF EditorSteps
Open the PDF Editor and drop in your PDF.
Pick the white-out tool and drag a box over the text or mark you want gone.
To replace it, pick the text tool and type the new words on top of the white box.
Repeat on any other page, then save and download the PDF.
White out text and type over it
PDFs are not built to be rewritten, so the usual way to change a word is to cover it and write over it. White-out draws a plain white box. Make it just big enough to hide the old text. Then add a text box on top with the correct words.
You can move or remove the boxes before saving. That makes it easy to line new text up with the old line. Fix as many pages as you need in one pass. For a note without covering anything, Add Text to PDF is the simpler tool.
White-out hides, it does not delete
This is the part people miss. The white box sits on top of the page. The original text is still in the file underneath it.
Anyone can select across the white area and copy the hidden words, or search for them. Some readers let you move or delete the box. So white-out is fine for a typo, an old price or a stray scribble. It is not fine for a Social Security number, a salary, a client name or any detail you are required to protect.
PDF Editor: Add text, images, shapes and white-out. Free, and your file never leaves your device.
Open PDF EditorWhen to redact instead
If the content must be gone for good, use Redact PDF. You drag boxes over what to hide, or search for a word to box every match. The redacted pages are then re-rendered as images with the boxes burned in, so the hidden text cannot be copied back. Pages without redactions stay untouched.
The trade-off: text on redacted pages is no longer selectable, because those pages become images. For legal filings, records requests and shared contracts, that is what you want. The guide to redacting a PDF walks through it.
White-out on a scanned PDF
A scan is already an image, so white-out works the same way: draw the box, type over it. If the scan has a text layer from OCR, the hidden words are still in that layer. Redact when it matters.
On a scan, pick a white-out box a little larger than the text. Scanned paper is rarely pure white, so a tight box can leave a faint gray edge around it.
Is there a free whiteout PDF tool?
Yes. The PDF Editor is free and adds no watermark. It also places images, highlights, rectangles and freehand ink, so you can fix a page and mark it up in one go. Added text supports Latin characters.
When the page is final and you want to stop anyone moving your white boxes and text, run the saved file through Flatten PDF. Its full mode renders each page to an image, so everything on the page is baked in together. Keep an unflattened copy in case you need to change it later.