07.04.2024, 09:27 How can I obscure the text in a PDF file (e.g.

in a PDF file (e.g. "greek" it, or replace the text with Lorem Ipsum) - Super User

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How can I obscure the text in a PDF file (e.g. "greek" it, or
replace the text with Lorem Ipsum)
Asked 13 years, 10 months ago Modified 7 years, 9 months ago Viewed 7k times

I have some lengthy PDF files produced for one client that I want to use as samples to send to
another client. However, the text in the PDF is commercially sensitive, so I don't want to send
5 it as-is.

I'd like to obscure the text so that the document still has the same overall look as the original,
but with either nonsense text (lorem ipsum ...) or with the text "greeked" so as to be difficult
to read. All the other parts of the document should remain untouched, i.e. I don't want to
spoil the artwork, etc.

I know that Acrobat can redact the text - but that simply blacks it out completely so that it no
longer looks like text. That's not what I'm after. I want the document to look like a real
document - but not contain the sensitive material.

Is there a tool that does this?

pdf

Share Improve this question Follow asked Jun 4, 2010 at 9:25

Gary McGill
225 1 4 8

5 How did you generate the pdf? I'm wondering it it might be easier to change it in the original file?
– celenius Jun 4, 2010 at 11:31

@celenius: yes, that's what I eventually did. However, I'd still be interested to find a PDF tool as
described. – Gary McGill Jun 14, 2010 at 13:57

https://superuser.com/questions/148756/how-can-i-obscure-the-text-in-a-pdf-file-e-g-greek-it-or-replace-the-text-w 1/2
07.04.2024, 09:27 How can I obscure the text in a PDF file (e.g. "greek" it, or replace the text with Lorem Ipsum) - Super User

1 How can you be sure that the width of a line will be unchanged? By changing the words, or even
swapping single characters, you'll mess up whatever typesetting you have in the document. – Geoff
Mar 23, 2011 at 20:02

1 Answer Sorted by: Highest score (default)

If you purchase Adobe Acrobat Professional it can do this. Either by changing the pixels in
scanned PDFs (I think, it may just draw a white box over the top) or by altering characters in a
1 generated PDF.

For a free solution (only done this under Linux, YMMV) you could convert the PDF back into
PostScript and (if you're lucky) you will see bits of the text you can edit and recreate the PDF,
and for scanned PDFs you could convert them into image files, edit the images with GIMP and
then convert them back to PDF.

Either method (Acrobat or PostScript) that changes the text doesn't usually mess up the
typesetting (by the time the PDF is produced each element seems to be fixed at an absolute
position on the page) but by the same token the changed text usually looks horrible as the
previous characters' typesetting is still in effect (resulting in uneven line widths, etc.) And you
usually have to change it in small lots (sometimes a single character at a time) so it's not
suitable for a document of more than a page or two unless you have the patience of a saint.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Apr 4, 2011 at 13:53

Malvineous
2,641 2 28 36

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