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Robert Wolff Dec 21, 2025

Censor, a new document redaction tool, is there!

It allows to draw black rectangles on PDF documents and to permanently remove the text and images below. Find it on @Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor, get it from @flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/page.codeberg.censor.Censor, or translate it on Codeberg Translate: https://translate.codeberg.org/engage/censor!

It is a free and open-source graphical user interface (GUI) for #Linux and the #GNOME desktop, and uses the #MuPDF library with its #python bindings from the #PyMuPDF module.

#censorship #redaction #PDF #Codeberg #Flatpak #Flathub

Censor

PDF Document Redaction for the GNOME Desktop

Codeberg.org

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Robert Wolff Feb 28

“A historic moment for Censor”

#Censor – the PDF redaction tool for the @gnome desktop – comes now with a new edit history. It allows you to undo and redo redactions using the right-click context menu or keyboard shortcuts. Also, a bug that prevented repeated saving to the same file path was fixed.

Get the new version from @flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/page.codeberg.censor.Censor, and find it on @Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor/releases/tag/v0.4.0

You may now talk Chinese, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, and Vietnamese with Censor (thanks a lot to the translators!). If your language is missing from this list I invite you to contribute at Codeberg Translate: https://translate.codeberg.org/engage/censor

#censorship #redaction #PDF #Codeberg #Flatpak #Flathub #GNOME #python #MuPDF #PyMuPDF #Linux

Install Censor on Linux | Flathub

Redact PDF documents

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Robert Wolff Mar 16

“Better safe than sorry”

For release 0.5.0 of #Censor, a lot of work went into improving the security of PDF redaction.

PDF documents are tricky, and irrevocably removing elements from them is even more. With this release, before saving a redacted document, garbage is now properly collected and documents are sanitized, which means that metadata, page thumbnails, etc. are removed.

Also, vector graphics are now removed with a more strict option when they overlap with redaction rectangles. On top of that, I added redaction of PDF annotations.

The user interface was refreshed: with undo and redo buttons in the toolbar and improved document saving experience. Drawing rectangles is now indicated by a crosshair cursor.

Thanks to the translators, you may now talk also Czech with Censor!

Get it from @flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/page.codeberg.censor.Censor, or contribute on @Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor

#censorship #redaction #PDF #Codeberg #Flatpak #Flathub #GNOME #python #MuPDF #PyMuPDF #linux

Install Censor on Linux | Flathub

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Robert Wolff

That said and celebrated ;), there are things that #Censor is not yet well redacting.

The upstream library #MuPDF (with its #Python bindings in #PyMuPDF) supports by default only redaction of text, vector graphics and images. Testing on a variety of PDF files (thanks to #pypdf, #qpdf, #ghostscript, and their issue reporters, as well as @pdfarranger for their hint) let me discover that some vector graphics are not properly redacted and an upstream issue has been reported for that.

Also, form fields (widgets), signatures and links may be incompletely redacted.

You can find an updated list of “What is redacted? What not?” here: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor/issues/120

#pdf #redaction #security

meta: What is redacted? What not?

> **Warning** > The following description is **not** valid for Censor until version 0.4.0. I recommend to update to [version 0.5.0](https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor/releases/tag/v0.5.0) for secure redaction. ## Elements under redaction rectangles - [x] Text: - characters are removed when ...

Codeberg.org

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Robert Wolff Mar 24

“Secure #redaction by design and through extensive #testing”

#Censor 0.6.0 comes with many more #security improvements, motivated by extensive testing on more then 1,000 #PDF document samples. You may now redact securely also links, form fields and widgets. In rare cases, when partial image redaction fails, the more secure full image removal is used instead.

But even more important, Censor now warns you, when unsuccessful redaction is detected during postprocessing. This reduces the impact of known issues of unsecure redaction.

Polish is the 11th language you may speak with Censor. Thanks to its translators (among them, @mondstern)!

Thanks a lot also to #pypdf, #qpdf, #pikepdf, #Ghostscript, #MuPDF, #PyMuPDF, and #poppler contributors for the great resource of PDF document samples!

Find it at @flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/page.codeberg.censor.Censor and @Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor

#Censorship #Codeberg #Flathub #GNOME #Linux #Python

Install Censor on Linux | Flathub

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Robert Wolff Apr 9

“Zoom in, zoom out, redact your points!”

#Censor v0.7.0 ships improved zooming with pinch-to-zoom gesture on touchpads and touchscreens and various security bug fixes. Find it at @flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/page.codeberg.censor.Censor and @Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor

You may now redact safely also #PDF documents with cropped, scaled, or rotated pages. The upstream #PyMuPDF library has some issues treating these documents. Thus, I implemented manual transformation and drawing of the redaction rectangles, and verified the proper redaction with a specially created sample document, submitted to the collection by #pypdf: https://github.com/py-pdf/sample-files/pull/36

Additionally, point- or line-like elements are now properly redacted. Sanitization during post-processing keeps now entries in form fields (note: this changes previous behavior).

Thanks to the translators, Censor is now available in 13 languages including Croatian and Russian.

#censorship #redaction #Codeberg #Flatpak #Flathub #GNOME #linux #python #MuPDF

Install Censor on Linux | Flathub

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Robert Wolff Apr 11

Good news for the #ArchLinux users among you: #Censor is now available in the #Arch User Repository (#AUR): https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/censor Your feedback is welcome!

Already since version 0.3.0, Censor has been packed for #NixOS: https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=censor Thanks to @pi_crew for maintaining!

#pdf #redaction #linux #packaging #PKGBUILD #maintenance

AUR (en) - censor

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Robert Wolff Apr 29

“Annotation censoring everywhere”

#Censor, the #PDF document #redaction tool for the #GNOME desktop, got a minor update to v0.7.1. Find it at @flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/page.codeberg.censor.Censor and @Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/censor/Censor

Censor’s #Flatpak package comes with the latest version of the upstream library #PyMuPDF (1.27.2.3). This solves an issue with annotations that could not be redacted in some files. Thanks to Julian Smith from #Artifex for fixing it upstream. In case you do not use the Flatpak package, you may need to wait for your distribution maintainers to update PyMuPDF’s version.

Hindi has been added to the languages you may now speak with Censor. Thanks to the translators!

#censorship #Codeberg #Flathub #GNOME #linux #python #MuPDF

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M23SNEZHOK Apr 9

@mahlzahn Awaiting Censor in GNOME circle :D

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Robert Wolff Apr 9

@M23SNEZHOK Thanks, and also for your translation contribution! I opened an issue over there ;) https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Circle/-/issues/264 Maybe with GNOME 51?