Safe PDF redaction tools that don’t leak

I’m seeing a recurring problem where “redacted” PDFs still expose text if you copy/paste or run strings — most recently a client handoff exported from Preview on macOS and a Foxit print-to-PDF on Windows 11. What are you using that truly removes underlying content (not just black boxes), and how do you verify it before sending to counsel? I’m trialing Acrobat Pro 2024 and PDF Redact Tools; this keeps showing up across workflows, so I’d like a couple options to test and vet on my own.

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I’ve had the same issue — Acrobat Pro’s Redact tool plus “Sanitize Document” has been solid, then I run pdftotext and search/grep a known term to confirm it’s truly gone (trust, but grep); steps here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/removing-sensitive-content-pdfs.html. For ultra-sensitive sets I’ll rasterize to image and re-PDF as a last resort, but that kills search — would your counsel accept image-only?

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