Why black box redactions fail
Published October 27, 2026
A black box drawn over text in a PDF usually hides the text only on screen. The letters are still in the file, under the box, and copy and paste, search or any text extraction program reads them. This page explains why, gives two public examples, lists the other places redacted text survives, and shows how to check a file before it goes out. This is general information, not legal advice.
Why the text survives
A PDF page is drawn from instructions: these letters at this position, this line, this image. Annotation tools (comments, highlights, shapes, stamps) add objects on top. They do not change the instructions underneath. A black rectangle from a shapes tool, or black highlighting, covers the letters without removing them, and the file still holds every one.
Even a real redaction tool can leave the text if the job is not finished. In Acrobat Pro, Adobe's help describes marking text for redaction and then a separate step, Apply. Until the marks are applied, they are only marks.
Public examples
In January 2019, lawyers for Paul Manafort filed a response in his case whose redactions did not hold. The Columbia Journalism Review reported that the hidden text could be read by copying it and pasting it into a new document, and suggested the likely cause was black highlighting or redaction marks that were never applied (Mathew Ingram, January 10, 2019).
In December 2025, The New York Times reported that some documents the Justice Department released in its Epstein files, from a 2021 civil suit against the executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate, could be read by copying the blacked-out text into a separate file (Santul Nerkar, December 23, 2025). A department spokesperson said the redactions had been applied by parties in the civil litigation.
Other places redacted text survives
- Black highlighting. A highlight is an annotation. The text under it is unchanged.
- A picture placed on top. A black image pasted over a line hides it on screen; the line is still underneath.
- White, tiny or off-page text. Text colored white, set very small or placed outside the visible page does not show, but it copies.
- The text layer of a scan. A scan run through OCR often has an invisible layer of recognized text behind the picture. A box drawn on the picture leaves that layer.
- Comments and form fields. A comment or a filled-in form field can repeat a number in text that is not part of the page.
- Metadata. Title, Author, Subject, Keywords and XMP data travel with the file and can name a person or an account.
- Bookmarks and the table of contents. Apple's Preview guide notes that table-of-contents entries linking to redacted text are not removed.
- Earlier versions inside the file. Many PDF editors save changes by appending them to the end of the file, so an earlier version of a page can remain inside until the file is saved as a new copy.
How to check a file
- Copy across each box. Select the area, copy, and paste into a plain text editor. Anything that pastes is still there.
- Search for part of what was removed. The first digits of a number, or a surname. A hit inside a black box is a failed redaction.
- Read the document properties, and look through comments, bookmarks and attachments if your viewer shows them.
- Look for other copies. The number you boxed on one page may be printed on others.
The free leak check reads a PDF the way the other side would. It extracts the text of every page and searches it for Social Security, account, routing and card numbers, dates of birth, email addresses and phone numbers. It flags text hidden under black boxes or otherwise not visible, reads comments and form fields, and lists the metadata. Because it searches the whole file, it also finds a number nobody marked, not just a box that failed. Scanned pages without a text layer are flagged "not checked", and pictures inside pages are not read.
What does remove the text
Two methods work: a redaction tool that deletes the letters and draws the box in their place, or turning the page into an image with the box burned in. After either, the metadata, comments, attachments and bookmarks still need removing, and the result is best saved as a new file. Free ways to do both are in how to redact a PDF for free, and the Mac and iPhone tools are in redacting a PDF on iPhone or Mac.
BatesNumbering.app burns each box into the page image of every page that has a redaction, leaves the other pages searchable, removes metadata, comments, form fields, attachments and bookmarks from every output file, and then runs the leak check on what it produced.
Common questions
Can blacked out text in a PDF be read?
Often, yes. If the black box was drawn over the text with a shapes, highlight or comment tool, the text is still in the file and can be copied or extracted. Real redaction removes the text or turns the page into an image.
How do I black out text in a PDF permanently?
Use a redaction tool that removes the text, such as Preview on a Mac or Acrobat Pro with the redactions applied, or turn the page into an image with the box burned in. Then check by copying the area and searching for what you removed.
Does printing to PDF remove redacted text?
Not necessarily. Printing to PDF usually keeps text as text, so a box drawn on top becomes part of the page while the words under it stay in the file. Turning the page into an image is different.
How can I check if a PDF redaction worked?
Copy across each black box and paste the result into a text editor, search the file for part of what you removed, and read the document properties. A free leak check does this for the whole file.
Redact and Bates-number a set of PDFs in one pass →Or check a PDF for numbers left in it, free →
More guides: What is Bates numbering · Bates numbering without Acrobat · Bates number format and examples · Bates numbering a discovery response without a lawyer · Exhibit numbers vs Bates numbers · How to redact a PDF for free · Redacting SSNs and account numbers in court filings · Redacting a bank statement · Redacting a PDF on iPhone or Mac · A document production index · Rolling productions · Responding to a request for production · Bates and redaction tools compared · batesstamp.com alternatives · RedactifyAI alternatives · Adobe Acrobat alternatives for Bates and redaction