When we are talking about how to whiteout on PDF, we are assuming that you are looking for a way to redact certain pieces of text, not simply to change the background. There are ways in which you can do this, however, as you have likely discovered by now, it is going to be nigh on impossible to do this in your standard PDF reader. For a job like this, you are going to need to have access to a quality PDF editor.
Whiteout a PDF in 4 Different Ways
If you want to learn how to whiteout a PDF, then you are going to need a piece of software called PDFelement. This is regarded as one of the most sophisticated pieces of PDF editor software on the market. You are able to accomplish a wide range of tasks with it. When it comes to whiting out text in your document, once you have a rough idea of what you are doing, you should be able to white out the text in no more than a few seconds.
Here are the details you can follow to white out pdf in 4 easy ways with PDFelement.
Step 1. Download the free trial of PDFelement
Click the button below, jump to the download site to get the free program installed on your PC.
Once you have downloaded and installed PDFelement, you are ready to learn how to whiteout on PDF.
Step 2. Open your PDF document
The first thing you will need to do is get your PDF document loaded up in PDFelement.
To do this, launch the application. At the top of the page, click the button that says ‘File‘ then click ‘Open‘.
You can now browse to where your file is saved. Double click it, and it should be open up in PDFelement. Make sure that you have opened up the correct document here!
Step 3. Starting to white-out on PDF
PDFelement offers you 4 easy ways to hide sensitive content.
Note: Always keeps an original file and white-out on a copy, in case you permanently whiteout any important information during the process.
#1 Redaction tool – Best for text whiteout
White out one by one
- Once your document is open, click the link that says ‘Protect‘ at the top of the page. On the new menu bar, select the “Mark for Redaction” icon which when you hover the mouse over it says “Mark Items to be Redacted“. This will look like a picture of a document with a pen over the top.
- Once that button has been pressed, your cursor will turn into a cross. Now find the text/image that you wish to whiteout on the page. Click and drag the mouse over the text to highlight the content section. You will find that the text or image you redact is marked with red rectangles when you move your mouse away. But when you hover over it, it will be black out.
- Want to change the color to white? You can now right-click on the text you have redacted. Hit the ‘Properties‘ link which appears in the new menu which pops up. You can now choose how you wish to white-out the information. This includes being able to change the “Fill Color” to White. If you wish to let people know that certain sections have been whited-out, you can also insert ‘Redaction text‘ which will go over the top of the hidden text.
- Play with the options however you see fit and repeat this process for all the other sections which need to be whited out.
- Last but not least, click the Apply Redactions button to permanently white out text/image on PDF
- You will only be able to white out one section (or image) at a time with this method.
Batch Whiteout certain word/phrase
- If you want to censor a certain word or a specific phrase, you can click the Search & Redact icon. From the popped up sidebar, you can enter the information you want to hide, press enter.
- You will see all the places contain the word/phrase, which are highlighted in yellow, you can check it one by one.
- Tick those you want to white out, set the Fill Color to White from the Properties windows, and click the Apply All Marks button to finish.
#2 Shape&Drawing – Ideal for block hiding
- Go to the Comment tab, choose any shape you like.
- Click and drag your mouse to block the information you want to hide.
- Right-click the shape/drawings and set the border color (Color) to white from the Properties.
#3 Text Box (Same with the Shape&Drawing)
- Select the Text Box from the Comment tab.
- Click and drag to make a red rectangle text box.
- Go to the Properties to set the Fill Color and the border color(Color) to white.
#4 Stamp – Quick batch whiteout
You can also use a white stamp as a patch to white out text in PDF. Just click “Comment” > “Custom Stamp” > “Create“, click on the “Select Picture” button and choose a white image, then hit the OK button.
Now you can white out by adding the white stamp to any content you want to censor. Simply click “Comment” > “Add stamp” > choose the white one from the custom section.
Step 4. Save your document
Finally, save your PDF document. Make sure that you give it a different filename. This ensures that you will always have easy access to the file which hasn’t been whited out. Sure, you can remove the white-outs yourself, but it is a time-consuming process.
Once the document is saved, open up it in your PDF reader. You can now double-check that everything is working correctly. However, if you have followed this guide, there should be absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t be working.
