1 credit

Redaction API

Permanently redact and remove sensitive information from PDFs by integrating a secure redaction API. Redact documents by identifying preset text patterns using regex patterns or based on specific search criteria.

Why Nutrient DWS API?

SOC 2 Compliant

Build the workflows you need without worrying about security. We don’t store any document data, and our API endpoints are served through encrypted connections.

Easy Integration

Get up and running in hours, not weeks. Access well-documented APIs and code samples that make integrating with your existing workflows a snap.

Robust and Flexible

With access to more than 30 tools, you can process one document in multiple ways by using API credits. Generate PDF from HTML, convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint and image files to PDF, and more.

Simple and Transparent Pricing

Select a package that suits your needs according to the number of credits you wish to spend. Each API tool and action has a specific credit cost.

Try It Out

This example redacts text in your document, effectively and permanently removing the matching content.

1

Use Your Free API Calls

Sign up and receive 100 credits for free, or log in to automatically add your API key to sample code. If you are not sure how credits are consumed read more in our pricing documentation , or check out this guide on calculating credit usage.

Add a File

Add a PDF named document.pdf to your project folder. You can also use our sample file. The file name is case sensitive. Make sure the file name matches the file name in the sample code.

Run the Code

Copy the code and run it from the same folder you added the files to. For more information, see our language-specific getting started guides.

View the Results

Open result.pdf in your project folder to view the results.

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F [email protected] \
  -F instructions='{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "text",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "text": "macaque",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "applyRedactions"
        }
      ]
    }'
curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F [email protected] ^
  -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"createRedactions\", \"strategy\": \"text\", \"strategyOptions\": {\"text\": \"macaque\", \"includeAnnotations\": true, \"caseSensitive\": false}}, {\"type\": \"applyRedactions\"}]}"
package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "document",
        "document.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("document.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "instructions",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("parts", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("file", "document")
            )
          )
          .put("actions", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "createRedactions")
              .put("strategy", "text")
              .put("strategyOptions", new JSONObject()
                .put("text", "macaque")
                .put("includeAnnotations", true)
                .put("caseSensitive", false)
              )
            )
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "applyRedactions")
            )
          ).toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("document", "document.pdf")
        .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject
        {
          ["parts"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["file"] = "document"
            }
          },
          ["actions"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "createRedactions",
              ["strategy"] = "text",
              ["strategyOptions"] = new JsonObject
              {
                ["text"] = "macaque",
                ["includeAnnotations"] = true,
                ["caseSensitive"] = false
              }
            },
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "applyRedactions"
            }
          }
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}
// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({
  parts: [
    {
      file: "document"
    }
  ],
  actions: [
    {
      type: "createRedactions",
      strategy: "text",
      strategyOptions: {
        text: "macaque",
        includeAnnotations: true,
        caseSensitive: false
      }
    },
    {
      type: "applyRedactions"
    }
  ]
}))
formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('document.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}
import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('document.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps({
      'parts': [
        {
          'file': 'document'
        }
      ],
      'actions': [
        {
          'type': 'createRedactions',
          'strategy': 'text',
          'strategyOptions': {
            'text': 'macaque',
            'includeAnnotations': true,
            'caseSensitive': false
          }
        },
        {
          'type': 'applyRedactions'
        }
      ]
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()
<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'instructions' => '{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "text",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "text": "macaque",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "applyRedactions"
        }
      ]
    }',
    'document' => new CURLFILE('document.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "createRedactions",
      "strategy": "text",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "text": "macaque",
        "includeAnnotations": true,
        "caseSensitive": false
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "applyRedactions"
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(document data)
--customboundary--
Using Postman? Download our official collection and start using the API with a single click. Read more 

Your API Key

Getting Started

The following section will walk you through how to best make use of the functionality the Redaction API provides.

Introduction to PDF Redaction

Redaction is the process of removing image, text, and vector content from a PDF page. This not only involves obscuring the content, but also removing the data in the document within the specified region.

Redaction is generally used when you want to remove personally identifiable or sensitive information from a document to ensure confidentiality and conform to regulations and privacy laws, such as GDPR or HIPAA. By using the Redaction component, the original content of a PDF can’t be restored, thereby guaranteeing privacy.

Redaction is a two-step process:

  • First, redaction annotations are created in the areas that are to be redacted. This step won’t remove any content from the document yet; it just marks regions for redaction.
  • Second, to actually remove the content, the redaction annotations need to be applied. In this step, the page content within the region of the redaction annotations is irreversibly removed.

The actual removal of content happens only after redaction annotations are applied to the document. Before applying them, they can be edited and removed the same as any other annotation.

Creating Redactions with Text Search

In this example, we’ll create redactions using a simple text search rule. Any piece of text matching a provided query will be covered by redaction annotations. To create redactions, use the createRedactions action with a text strategy.

To do this, add a document.pdf file to the same folder as your code. You can use any document containing text, or use our provided sample document.

Run the code, and you’ll get a result.pdf with all occurrences of the searched text marked with redaction annotations.

Create redactions from search:

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F [email protected] \
  -F instructions='{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "text",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "text": "macaque",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        }
      ]
    }'
curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F [email protected] ^
  -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"createRedactions\", \"strategy\": \"text\", \"strategyOptions\": {\"text\": \"macaque\", \"includeAnnotations\": true, \"caseSensitive\": false}}]}"
package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "document",
        "document.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("document.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "instructions",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("parts", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("file", "document")
            )
          )
          .put("actions", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "createRedactions")
              .put("strategy", "text")
              .put("strategyOptions", new JSONObject()
                .put("text", "macaque")
                .put("includeAnnotations", true)
                .put("caseSensitive", false)
              )
            )
          ).toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("document", "document.pdf")
        .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject
        {
          ["parts"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["file"] = "document"
            }
          },
          ["actions"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "createRedactions",
              ["strategy"] = "text",
              ["strategyOptions"] = new JsonObject
              {
                ["text"] = "macaque",
                ["includeAnnotations"] = true,
                ["caseSensitive"] = false
              }
            }
          }
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}
// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({
  parts: [
    {
      file: "document"
    }
  ],
  actions: [
    {
      type: "createRedactions",
      strategy: "text",
      strategyOptions: {
        text: "macaque",
        includeAnnotations: true,
        caseSensitive: false
      }
    }
  ]
}))
formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('document.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}
import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('document.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps({
      'parts': [
        {
          'file': 'document'
        }
      ],
      'actions': [
        {
          'type': 'createRedactions',
          'strategy': 'text',
          'strategyOptions': {
            'text': 'macaque',
            'includeAnnotations': true,
            'caseSensitive': false
          }
        }
      ]
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()
<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'instructions' => '{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "text",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "text": "macaque",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        }
      ]
    }',
    'document' => new CURLFILE('document.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "createRedactions",
      "strategy": "text",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "text": "macaque",
        "includeAnnotations": true,
        "caseSensitive": false
      }
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(document data)
--customboundary--

Preset Pattern Redaction

Redaction API lets you create redactions on top of text matching predefined patterns, such as email addresses, URLs, and more.

For our example, we’ll create redactions using the email-address preset to search for all occurrences of e-mail addresses. To do this, add a document.pdf file to the same folder as your code. You can use any document containing text, or use our provided sample document.

Run the code, and you’ll get a result.pdf with all occurrences of e-mail addresses marked with redaction annotations.

For a complete list of supported presets, see our API reference.

Create redactions by searching for a pattern:

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F [email protected] \
  -F instructions='{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "preset",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "preset": "email-address"
          }
        }
      ]
    }'
curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F [email protected] ^
  -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"createRedactions\", \"strategy\": \"preset\", \"strategyOptions\": {\"preset\": \"email-address\"}}]}"
package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "document",
        "document.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("document.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "instructions",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("parts", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("file", "document")
            )
          )
          .put("actions", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "createRedactions")
              .put("strategy", "preset")
              .put("strategyOptions", new JSONObject()
                .put("preset", "email-address")
              )
            )
          ).toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("document", "document.pdf")
        .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject
        {
          ["parts"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["file"] = "document"
            }
          },
          ["actions"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "createRedactions",
              ["strategy"] = "preset",
              ["strategyOptions"] = new JsonObject
              {
                ["preset"] = "email-address"
              }
            }
          }
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}
// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({
  parts: [
    {
      file: "document"
    }
  ],
  actions: [
    {
      type: "createRedactions",
      strategy: "preset",
      strategyOptions: {
        preset: "email-address"
      }
    }
  ]
}))
formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('document.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}
import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('document.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps({
      'parts': [
        {
          'file': 'document'
        }
      ],
      'actions': [
        {
          'type': 'createRedactions',
          'strategy': 'preset',
          'strategyOptions': {
            'preset': 'email-address'
          }
        }
      ]
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()
<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'instructions' => '{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "preset",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "preset": "email-address"
          }
        }
      ]
    }',
    'document' => new CURLFILE('document.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "createRedactions",
      "strategy": "preset",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "preset": "email-address"
      }
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(document data)
--customboundary--

Create Redactions with Regex Search

The Redaction API lets you create redactions on top of text matching a provided regular expression. This is the most versatile redaction creation strategy.

In this example, we’ll create redactions using a regex text search rule. Any piece of text matching a provided query will be covered by redaction annotations. To create redactions, use the createRedactions action with a text strategy. To do this, add a document.pdf file to the same folder as your code. You can use any document containing text, or use our provided sample document.

Run the code, and you’ll get a result.pdf with all occurrences of text matching the regex text marked with redaction annotations.

Create redactions by searching with regular expression:

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F [email protected] \
  -F instructions='{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "regex",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "regex": "macaques?",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        }
      ]
    }'
curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F [email protected] ^
  -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"createRedactions\", \"strategy\": \"regex\", \"strategyOptions\": {\"regex\": \"macaques?\", \"includeAnnotations\": true, \"caseSensitive\": false}}]}"
package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "document",
        "document.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("document.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "instructions",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("parts", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("file", "document")
            )
          )
          .put("actions", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "createRedactions")
              .put("strategy", "regex")
              .put("strategyOptions", new JSONObject()
                .put("regex", "macaques?")
                .put("includeAnnotations", true)
                .put("caseSensitive", false)
              )
            )
          ).toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("document", "document.pdf")
        .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject
        {
          ["parts"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["file"] = "document"
            }
          },
          ["actions"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "createRedactions",
              ["strategy"] = "regex",
              ["strategyOptions"] = new JsonObject
              {
                ["regex"] = "macaques?",
                ["includeAnnotations"] = true,
                ["caseSensitive"] = false
              }
            }
          }
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}
// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({
  parts: [
    {
      file: "document"
    }
  ],
  actions: [
    {
      type: "createRedactions",
      strategy: "regex",
      strategyOptions: {
        regex: "macaques?",
        includeAnnotations: true,
        caseSensitive: false
      }
    }
  ]
}))
formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('document.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}
import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('document.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps({
      'parts': [
        {
          'file': 'document'
        }
      ],
      'actions': [
        {
          'type': 'createRedactions',
          'strategy': 'regex',
          'strategyOptions': {
            'regex': 'macaques?',
            'includeAnnotations': true,
            'caseSensitive': false
          }
        }
      ]
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()
<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'instructions' => '{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "createRedactions",
          "strategy": "regex",
          "strategyOptions": {
            "regex": "macaques?",
            "includeAnnotations": true,
            "caseSensitive": false
          }
        }
      ]
    }',
    'document' => new CURLFILE('document.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "createRedactions",
      "strategy": "regex",
      "strategyOptions": {
        "regex": "macaques?",
        "includeAnnotations": true,
        "caseSensitive": false
      }
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(document data)
--customboundary--

Applying redactions

After redaction annotations are created, they need to be applied to the document to effectively and permanently remove the covered content. You can achieve this by adding the applyRedactions action to the instructions.

To do this, we'll use the results.pdf file from the previous example. Make sure it's in the same folder as your code.

Apply redaction annotations to document:

curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \
  -o result.pdf \
  --fail \
  -F [email protected] \
  -F instructions='{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "applyRedactions"
        }
      ]
    }'
curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^
  -o result.pdf ^
  --fail ^
  -F [email protected] ^
  -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"applyRedactions\"}]}"
package com.example.pspdfkit;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import okhttp3.MediaType;
import okhttp3.MultipartBody;
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.RequestBody;
import okhttp3.Response;

public final class PspdfkitApiExample {
  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
    final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder()
      .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
      .addFormDataPart(
        "document",
        "result.pdf",
        RequestBody.create(
          MediaType.parse("application/pdf"),
          new File("result.pdf")
        )
      )
      .addFormDataPart(
        "instructions",
        new JSONObject()
          .put("parts", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("file", "document")
            )
          )
          .put("actions", new JSONArray()
            .put(new JSONObject()
              .put("type", "applyRedactions")
            )
          ).toString()
      )
      .build();

    final Request request = new Request.Builder()
      .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build")
      .method("POST", body)
      .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
      .build();

    final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient()
      .newBuilder()
      .build();

    final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

    if (response.isSuccessful()) {
      Files.copy(
        response.body().byteStream(),
        FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"),
        StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING
      );
    } else {
      // Handle the error
      throw new IOException(response.body().string());
    }
  }
}
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using RestSharp;

namespace PspdfkitApiDemo
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");

      var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST)
        .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here")
        .AddFile("document", "result.pdf")
        .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject
        {
          ["parts"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["file"] = "document"
            }
          },
          ["actions"] = new JsonArray
          {
            new JsonObject
            {
              ["type"] = "applyRedactions"
            }
          }
        }.ToString());

      request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) =>
      {
        if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)
        {
          using (responseStream)
          {
            using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf");
            responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
          Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
        }
      };

      client.Execute(request);
    }
  }
}
// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.

const axios = require('axios')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const fs = require('fs')

const formData = new FormData()
formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({
  parts: [
    {
      file: "document"
    }
  ],
  actions: [
    {
      type: "applyRedactions"
    }
  ]
}))
formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('result.pdf'))

;(async () => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, {
      headers: formData.getHeaders({
        'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
      }),
      responseType: "stream"
    })

    response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf"))
  } catch (e) {
    const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data)
    console.log(errorString)
  }
})()

function streamToString(stream) {
  const chunks = []
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk)))
    stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err))
    stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8")))
  })
}
import requests
import json

response = requests.request(
  'POST',
  'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here'
  },
  files = {
    'document': open('result.pdf', 'rb')
  },
  data = {
    'instructions': json.dumps({
      'parts': [
        {
          'file': 'document'
        }
      ],
      'actions': [
        {
          'type': 'applyRedactions'
        }
      ]
    })
  },
  stream = True
)

if response.ok:
  with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd:
    for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096):
      fd.write(chunk)
else:
  print(response.text)
  exit()
<?php

$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
  CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build',
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => '',
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
    'instructions' => '{
      "parts": [
        {
          "file": "document"
        }
      ],
      "actions": [
        {
          "type": "applyRedactions"
        }
      ]
    }',
    'document' => new CURLFILE('result.pdf')
  ),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
    'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here'
  ),
  CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);

curl_close($curl);

fclose($FileHandle);

POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundary
Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here

--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "parts": [
    {
      "file": "document"
    }
  ],
  "actions": [
    {
      "type": "applyRedactions"
    }
  ]
}
--customboundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="result.pdf"
Content-Type: application/pdf

(document data)
--customboundary--