The result is a list by severity, each finding with its page and a masked snippet — high when the recovered text contains an email address, a Social Security, card or IBAN number, or a labelled date of birth — or the line “none of N checks found recoverable content”. If something is found, Fix in Redact opens Redact with a box already drawn on each finding that has a place on a page, and the marked pages are re-rendered as flat images, so the text is removed rather than covered. Sanitize handles what needs no box: earlier versions, leftover objects, hidden field values, thumbnails, metadata, attachments and scripts. Checking uses no job and the file is never uploaded — for a file you just redacted, the upload would be the leak.
How it works
- Drop the redacted PDF and open Leak Check
- Read what it found under the boxes and elsewhere in the file, or “none of N checks found recoverable content”
- Fix in Redact or Sanitize, check the result again, and keep the report with the file
Questions people ask
Why does copy and paste reveal redacted text?
Because the redaction was a drawing, not a removal. A black rectangle or highlight added in a word processor, a markup tool or as a comment sits on top of the page; the text underneath is still in the file, in the same place, and a viewer lets you select it through the box. Exporting to PDF does not change that. Real redaction removes the text itself: Bindery’s Redact re-renders each marked page as a flat image, so there is no text layer left under the box.
Is the copy-and-paste test enough?
It is a good first test, and it misses a lot. It reaches only the text a viewer lets you select on the current pages. It does not show text in an earlier version saved inside the file, objects left from pages that were replaced, form fields that are hidden, layers switched off, thumbnails, metadata or attachments, and a viewer may not let you select text under a comment. Leak Check reads each of those and checks every word on the rendered page, so text drawn white on white, set under a point high or placed off the page is found too.
What if Leak Check finds text under my boxes?
Do not send that file. Choose Fix in Redact: Redact opens with a box already drawn over each finding on a page. Check them, add any the check could not place, and apply; the marked pages are re-rendered as flat images, so the text is gone rather than covered. Then run Leak Check on the redacted copy. Findings elsewhere in the file — an earlier version, a hidden field, metadata — go with Sanitize, which writes a new copy without them and checks it again.