Redact and edit legal documents without uploading them

Why black boxes in ordinary PDF tools fail

A filled rectangle drawn in an ordinary PDF editor is a new object laid on top of the page; the words underneath are still in the file. Anyone can select, copy or search them, or delete the rectangle in another program. Redaction failures in court filings have happened exactly this way.

In Vault Studio Pro, when you save a PDF with redaction boxes, every page with at least one box is drawn at 200 dots per inch with the boxes painted in and replaced by that image. Those pages no longer contain text, fonts or vector shapes, so there is nothing under the black to recover. Pages without a box keep their selectable text.

A redaction workflow, step by step

1. Keep the original. Work on a copy so you always have the unredacted version in your records.
2. Open the app, choose PDF, and open the file. Nothing is uploaded.
3. Choose the redact tool and drag a box over each name, account number, address or passage. Look at headers, footers, page numbers, exhibit stamps and small print, and at every repeat of the same detail.
4. Save the PDF. The redacted pages are rebuilt as images at that moment.
5. Open the saved copy and try to select, copy or search for a redacted word. If the search finds nothing and the box is solid, the text is gone.
6. If the production needs to be searchable, note that Vault Studio Pro's OCR only reads text back out of the page for copying; it doesn't add a searchable text layer to the saved PDF, so use a separate tool for that step.

The tool doesn't search for patterns such as Social Security numbers for you; it removes what you box. Read how PDF redaction works for the trade-offs, including slightly softer page images and larger files.

Saving a redacted PDF also strips its metadata and attachments automatically; see below for what that covers.

Editing .docx drafts without an upload

Engagement letters, briefs and contract drafts often arrive as .docx files. The document editor opens them in the browser with headings, lists, tables and images, and saves a genuine .docx again. You can leave threaded comments and use suggestion mode to record insertions and deletions that you accept or reject. Pro adds revision history with snapshots you can roll back to.

Complex layouts can be simplified on import (headers, footers, exact fonts, text boxes, tracked changes made elsewhere), so check the result. PDF export from the document editor is image-only; if an e-filing system needs a text-searchable PDF, print to PDF from your operating system instead.

OCR for scanned exhibits

OCR reads scanned exhibits and faxed letters so you can search and copy them, or send the text to the document editor. It recognises English only; the first page of each PDF is free and Pro covers every page. Proofread anything you quote.

Encrypted handoff to a client or co-counsel

The File Safe locks any file (a PDF production, a .docx draft or a ZIP of exhibits) inside a .vault file encrypted with AES-256-GCM, with the key derived from your password by PBKDF2. Send the .vault by email or a file-sharing link and give the password another way, such as a phone call. The recipient needs Vault Studio Pro and the password to open it. Decrypting is free and needs no account, but it isn't a standard PDF password, so a court portal or a client who insists on a password-protected PDF can't use it.

What it doesn't do (use something else for these)

• No Bates numbering. Use PDF Vault, our sister product for single-purpose PDF jobs, or your litigation software.
• No redaction log. The app doesn't produce a redaction certificate or a privilege log.
• Bookmarks aren't cleaned up. A redacted save automatically clears the title, author, subject and keywords, resets producer/creator, and removes XMP metadata and embedded attachments. Bookmark titles are not checked or removed, so review them separately before production.
• No verification of other people's redactions. To test a file you received, try selecting and searching under its boxes yourself.
• Not a document management system. Projects are saved in this browser on this device, not encrypted at rest, with no matter filing or audit trail.
• Signatures are images. The signature tool places a picture of a signature, not a cryptographic digital signature.

Privacy notes for a law office

The page's Content-Security-Policy refuses connections to any site other than vaultstudiopro.com. Projects autosaved in the browser are not encrypted, so export and delete them on shared workstations. Dictation uses the browser's speech service (Google or Apple), so don't dictate privileged material. See the security page.

Cost

Redaction, the editors and the File Safe are free. Pro costs $9 for a one-off Week Pass, $15 a month, $99 a year or $299 once, and every Pro feature is unlocked for the first 7 days with no card. During the launch, a Founders plan costs $59 a year for as long as you renew (until 2026-12-01). See pricing. If you are weighing Acrobat, read our comparison with Adobe Acrobat.