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SPECIFICTION
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pdf-redactor

github.com

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Spec score 7.3 #20 of 27 in Document Redaction Software

Spec sheet

Purpose
pdf-redactor is a general-purpose PDF text-layer redaction tool written in pure Python.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
License
The repository displays a CC0-1.0 license.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Maker
The README credits Joshua Tauberer and Antoine McGrath as the authors.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Authors
The README credits Joshua Tauberer and Antoine McGrath.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Command-line status
The README says the command-line version does not yet actually do anything to the PDF.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Compression guidance
The README recommends using qpdf to decompress PDFs before processing and to recompress and linearize them afterward because pdfrw does not support all content-stream compression methods.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Compression limit
Because pdfrw does not support all content-stream compression methods, the README recommends decompressing PDFs with qpdf before processing them.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Content it handles
It can process page text, plain-text annotations, link target URLs, document information metadata, and embedded XMP metadata.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Content not touched
Graphical elements, images, and other embedded resources are not touched.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Coverage limits
The README says it does not inspect some PDF components, including embedded files, multimedia, scripts, forms, internal object names, and digital signatures.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Font limit
Unusual fonts may not be processed correctly, which can prevent text patterns from matching or replacement text from rendering correctly.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Font limitation
Unusual fonts may not be processed correctly because the tool has limited understanding of glyph-to-Unicode mappings.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Implementation dependency
The project uses pdfrw to parse and write PDFs.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Integration
The project uses pdfrw to parse and write PDFs, and recommends qpdf to decompress and recompress PDFs when needed.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Metadata
It can rewrite, remove, or add document metadata fields and XML metadata.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Metadata editing
It can rewrite, remove, or add metadata fields and XML metadata through functions operating on the parsed XMP DOM.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Partial coverage
The README lists embedded files, multimedia, scripts, rich-text annotations, forms, internal object names, and digital signatures among PDF content it does not scan.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Python library
The README recommends using pdf_redactor as a library with Python text-filtering functions; it also documents Python 3 installation and a Python 3 command-line invocation.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Redaction targets
It can process page text, plain text annotations, link target URLs, the Document Information Dictionary, and embedded XMP metadata.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Text redaction
It supports regular-expression text substitution, such as replacing Social Security numbers with a mask.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Text substitution
It supports regular-expression text substitution, such as replacing Social Security numbers with a chosen string.Read 9 Oct 2026 · github.com
Use
The README recommends using the Python module as a library with user-written text filters; the command-line version does not yet do anything to the PDF by itself.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Visual content
Graphical elements, images, and other embedded resources are not touched.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Where Specifiction places it

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