Secure Your Information with Bluebeam: The Ultimate Redaction Solution

Last updated on March 17, 2023

Written By Piers Zoew

Bluebeam has powerful features for editing and managing PDFs. Compared with Adobe Acrobat, which can provide a comprehensive PDF solution for PDF editors, Bluebeam’s focus may be on organizational collaboration and customization, but also to provide all users with more professional and efficient PDF solutions. In collaboration, there is inevitably some sensitive information that needs to be marked or hidden, so how to redact in Bluebeam has become a worthy issue for discussion. This article will be for you to make a detailed answer.

Maybe You Are Interested In: How To Black Out Text in a PDF Online/Offline, How to Write on a PDF on Windows[3 Free Methods]

What is Bluebeam

Bluebeam is primarily a paperless workflow idea through using PDFs and provides a convenient and easy solution for communication between employees. Desktop Software and Online Cloud are both available.

How To Redact Text/Image in Bluebeam

If you want to Redact text or images in Bluebeam, you only need a short learning curve to redact information.

Step 1. Download Bluebeam Revu and click “File-Open” to open the PDF file after launching.

Open the PDF in Bluebeam Revu

Step 2. Click “Edit-PDF Content-Mark for Redaction” in the upper left corner to select the overlay location. After the selection, select the area that will be a red box. (You will receive a warning pop-up when selecting the tool, click “OK” to skip).

Select the Text or Image that Needs to Be Redacted

Step 3. Again positioned to “Edit-PDF Content-Apply Redactions” in the pop-up window, you can customize the redaction of the number of pages and targets. Select the current page and check the “Delete only Markups intersecting with redaction regions”. Click on “Advanced…” in the bottom left corner and check all the “Redaction Filters” in the new pop-up box, then click “OK” to apply. (If you want to keep a copy of the source file, you can save a separate file for backup before doing this)

Redact in Bluebeam Revu

Step 4. You can click “File-Save as” to download the modified document or click “File-Export” to export it to a different format.

Export the Redacted Document

Automated Redact Data in Bluebeam Revu

How To Redact in Bluebeam Cloud

Bluebeam takes up to 1.6GB of memory, so if you have internet access, Bluebeam Cloud is a better choice. You can do the redaction process online. Here are two methods for you to do so.

Method 1. Redact by Adding a Text Box in Bluebeam Cloud

Step 1. Upload PDF files to Bluebeam Cloud by clicking “Browse” to select files

Upload PDF to Bluebeam Cloud

Step 2. Click to open the PDF, locate the “Text” button on the left, and drag the mouse to select the text, image, or area that needs to be covered.

Add Text Boxes in PDF via Bluebeam Cloud

Step 3. Click on the border to summon a custom pop-up window, select the rightmost “Fill Color” and drag the value of transparency to 100%. Click the three dots on the right to select “Download” to save the file.

Redact PDF in Bluebeam Cloud

Method 2. Redact by Adding Highlighting in Bluebeam Cloud

Step 1. Open the PDF in Bluebeam Cloud and then locate the “Highlight” tool, select the area you need to redact with the mouse.

Highlight the Text in the PDF in Bluebeam Cloud

Step 2. Click the highlighted area in the upper toolbar to change the color of the highlighted part to black and adjust the transparency to 100%.

Redact PDF Text in Bluebeam Cloud

Optional Plans Available for Bluebeam

Free Alternative of Bluebeam to Black Out Your PDF

Many people will feel frustrated due to the high-cost subscription of Bluebeam. But you can achieve redaction through some open-source PDF editor for free, PDFgear can also provide you with a free solution.

Step 1. Enter PDFgear Online Editor and upload the PDF.

Import PDF to PDFgear

Step 2. Click the upper right corner of the “Add or edit annotations”, by adding graphics to redact the text or images in the PDF.

Add Rectangle in PDF by PDFgear

Step 3. Click “Change Color”, and select black in the drop-down card to black out the selected area.

Black Out in PDF through PDFgear

FAQs

How Do I Redact Multiple Pages in Bluebeam?

To redact multiple pages in Bluebeam at once, you just need to select “All Pages” from the “Pages” drop-down option in the “Apply Redactions” pop-up box before applying.

How Do I Remove Text from a PDF in Bluebeam?

Removing text in Bluebeam is a simple task. You just need to select the text and press “DELETE” on your keyboard to delete it. When done, exit editing mode by hitting the “ESC” key.

Is there an Alternative to Bluebeam to edit PDFs professionally for free?

Bluebeam’s three subscription plans are not cheap. So PDFgear, a completely free PDF editor, lets you experience more editing features: highlight, sign, remove watermarks, set headers, and footers, encrypt, add images, scan, print, and even let you edit PDF files like Word.

To Sum Up

Bluebeam is indeed a good tool for redacting PDFs. But its expensive plan makes it very stressful. If you only need to redact this one function or occasionally edit PDF files, then PDFgear will be a better choice.