On-device document privacy
Redact PDFs on your Mac without uploading the source
Offline PDF redaction keeps document inspection and editing on your Mac. Mint detects supported sensitive details on-device, lets you enable or reject each proposed black-out, supports manual rectangles, and exports a new redacted copy while preserving the original.
What macOS can do on its own
Preview includes a Redact selection tool on supported macOS versions. Use the dedicated redaction tool, not a black annotation placed over live text.
- Duplicate the source file and work on the copy so you retain an original for verification.
- Open the copy in Preview, choose the Redact selection tool when available, and mark only the sensitive text that must be removed.
- Export or save a new result, close it, reopen it, and check every page at high zoom.
- Search, select, and copy around redacted areas to confirm the hidden value is not still extractable. Inspect document metadata separately when it matters.
When Mint helps
Mint is useful when a document contains many common sensitive patterns or images that need one review surface.
- Drop in a PDF or image and run supported detectors for faces, account and card numbers, government IDs, emails, phone numbers, names, addresses, dates, barcodes, and other text patterns.
- Treat automatic detection as a starting point: turn individual findings on or off and draw additional manual rectangles.
- Zoom through every page, then save a separate redacted copy and compare it with the preserved source before sharing.
- Use Redact in Direct, Setapp, or the Mac App Store edition; document detection and editing remain on-device.
Boundaries and safety checks
Redaction is a verification task, not a one-click guarantee. Visual coverage alone does not prove that underlying text or metadata is gone.
- Review false positives and missed detections manually, especially handwriting, unusual layouts, low-resolution scans, and values split across lines.
- Keep the unredacted original protected and share only the verified exported copy.
- Test the final copy in another PDF reader when the disclosure is legally, financially, or personally sensitive.
Frequently asked questions
Does Mint upload PDFs for redaction?
No. PDF and image detection and editing happen on-device. Website downloads, licensing, analytics, and distribution services are separate network activities.
Does automatic detection find every sensitive detail?
No detector is a substitute for page-by-page review. Mint lets you reject incorrect findings and add manual rectangles for anything it misses.
Does Mint overwrite the original PDF?
The Redact workflow saves a redacted copy and preserves the original so you can compare the two before sharing.
Prepare one verified redacted copy
Open a PDF or image in Mint, review every finding, add manual coverage, and inspect the exported copy before sharing.