Excise vs Redacta

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.

Redacta is a free, open-source web tool for redacting or pseudonymising sensitive information in PDF files from plain-language instructions. It can identify and permanently remove names, email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, addresses, account numbers, and other personally identifiable information. It also detects embedded photos, signatures, logos, and screenshots for image redaction. Pseudonymisation replaces real names, addresses, and identifiers with fictional alternatives while keeping documents readable. Redacta says output PDFs retain their formatting, layout, fonts, and page structure. PDF parsing and redaction run in the browser through WebAssembly and MuPDF, and the site says files are not uploaded to a server. You provide your own Google Gemini or OpenAI API key, with requests sent directly to that provider. The free trial routes extracted text through a backend proxy. No signup, installation, watermarks, or usage limits are listed.