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GroupDocs.Redaction allows to easily redact data of sensitive or private nature from your documents. The most popular redaction case is to remove a text from a document.
With GroupDocs.Redaction API you can apply text redaction using exact phrase or regular expression for documents of different formats like PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX and others. See full list at supported document formats article.
In the example below, we apply textual redaction, replacing personal exact phrase “John Doe” with “[personal]” (or any exemption code):
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import ExactPhraseRedaction, ReplacementOptions
def redact_exact_phrase():
# Specify the redaction options
repl_opt = ReplacementOptions("[personal]")
ex_red = ExactPhraseRedaction("John Doe", repl_opt)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(ex_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_exact_phrase()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 16 KB)
By default, search for exact phase is case insensitive. For a case-sensitive redaction, there is a constructor parameter and corresponding public property:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import ExactPhraseRedaction, ReplacementOptions
def redact_case_sensitive_phrase():
# Enable case-sensitive matching
case_sensitive = True
# Specify the redaction options
repl_opt = ReplacementOptions("[personal]")
ex_red = ExactPhraseRedaction("John Doe", case_sensitive, repl_opt)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(ex_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_case_sensitive_phrase()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 16 KB)
If you need a color box over the redacted text, you can use color instead of replacement string. The redaction will erase matched text and put a rectangle of the specified color in place of redacted text:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import ExactPhraseRedaction, ReplacementOptions
from groupdocs.pydrawing import Color
def redact_with_color_box():
# Define the color of the redaction box
color = Color.from_argb(255, 220, 20, 60)
# Specify the redaction options
repl_opt = ReplacementOptions(color)
ex_red = ExactPhraseRedaction("John Doe", repl_opt)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(ex_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_with_color_box()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 17 KB)
You might need to apply redaction to a right-to-left document, such as Arabic or Hebrew. The following example demonstrates how to apply ExactPhraseRedaction to an Arabic PDF document:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import ExactPhraseRedaction, ReplacementOptions
def redact_right_to_left_text():
# Specify the redaction options with an Arabic phrase
repl_opt = ReplacementOptions("[test]")
ex_red = ExactPhraseRedaction("انتقد", repl_opt)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./arabic.pdf") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(ex_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_right_to_left_text()
arabic.pdf is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (PDF, 23 KB)
Behind the scenes, “exact phrase” redaction works though regular expressions, which are the baseline approach for redaction. In the example below, we redact out any text, matching “2 digits, space or nothing, 2 digits, again space and 6 digits” with a blue color box:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import RegexRedaction, ReplacementOptions
from groupdocs.pydrawing import Color
def redact_with_regex():
# Define the color of the redaction box
color = Color.from_argb(255, 220, 20, 60)
# Specify the redaction options
repl_opt = ReplacementOptions(color)
reg_red = RegexRedaction("\\d{2}\\s*\\d{2}[^\\d]*\\d{6}", repl_opt)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(reg_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_with_regex()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 16 KB)
If you need to apply redact a whole paragraph, you might also need to use RegexRedaction. The following example demonstrates how to redact the whole paragraph in a PDF document:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import RegexRedaction, ReplacementOptions
from groupdocs.pydrawing import Color
def redact_whole_paragraph():
# Define the color of the redaction box
color = Color.from_argb(255, 220, 20, 60)
# Specify the redaction options that match an entire paragraph
repl_opt = ReplacementOptions(color)
reg_red = RegexRedaction("(Lorem(\n|.)+?urna)", repl_opt)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.pdf") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(reg_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_whole_paragraph()
sample.pdf is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (PDF, 68 KB)
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