Excise vs GoCalma

Excise is a free, open-source PDF editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its central feature is permanent redaction: it removes text, images, and vector graphics from PDF content rather than placing a visible cover over them. By default, the cleanup also removes metadata, attachments, JavaScript, thumbnails, and hidden layers, and reports those removals. The app handles search, text selection and copying, annotations, page organization, Bates numbering, file-size reduction, and AcroForm filling, flattening, and creation. Its command-line tools support batch work and stable JSON output; `unredact` checks for leaked redacted text, while `audit` looks for text beneath opaque overlays. Excise reads and writes AES-128 and AES-256 encryption and inspects digital signatures against the operating system trust store. Signature inspection does not check revocation or evaluate timestamp and long-term validation material. Dynamic XFA layouts are experimental and cannot be filled. Downloads include packages for Apple Silicon macOS, Windows 10/11 x64, Ubuntu/Debian, and x64 or ARM64 Linux; builds are unsigned, not notarized, and lack auto-update.

GoCalma is open-source browser software for detecting and redacting sensitive information in PDF files without sending document contents to a server. It identifies more than 30 personal-information types and validates formats across more than 10 European ID formats. Users can choose redaction, masking, hashing, highlighting, or synthetic replacement by information type, then review candidates with the strategy, pattern, and confidence behind each flag. OCR for scanned or image-heavy PDFs runs locally. Listed profiles include Swiss DPA, EU GDPR, Healthcare, Financial, and Full Scan. An encrypted .gocalma recovery key can restore the original document later with the matching key. The repository says key payloads use AES-GCM encryption and redaction removes PDF author, title, and timestamp metadata. Its audit summary records a design-level concern involving raw key storage when no password is set. The Vercel demo uses regex-only detection because model files exceed its 250 MB limit. Local setup requires Node.js 18 or later, npm, and a modern desktop browser. The software is distributed under the MIT License.