Engineering PDF Redactor

Python desktop tool for anonymizing engineering drawing PDFs on macOS.

What It Does

• Performs true PDF redaction with PyMuPDF (add_redact_annot + apply_redactions)
• Removes content inside redaction regions for text, images, and vector graphics
• Supports batch processing from GUI or CLI
• Writes outputs to _prodc/ by default
• Prevents accidental overwrite of the input file (uses *_redacted.pdf when needed)

Available Template Options

The GUI now exposes only these three options:

• default_auto
• templateA
• templateB

default_auto is built in (no JSON file required).
templateA and templateB map to Template A and Template B JSON files.

Redaction Logic (Current Implementation)

For each page, the engine combines:

• Fixed template regions (regions)
• Regex-based text matches (text_patterns)
• Optional auto-detection (auto_detect)
  • keyword word-matching (keywords)
  • corner image scan with area safety cap
  • corner vector scan with area safety cap

Then it applies true redaction and saves with cleanup flags (garbage=4, clean=True).

Requirements

• macOS
• Python 3.10+

Install

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Optional drag-and-drop support:

• Install tkinterdnd2 (already listed in requirements.txt)
• If unavailable, the app still works via Add PDFs

Run GUI

python3 app.py

Workflow:

1. Select template (default_auto, templateA, or templateB)
2. Add one or more PDF files
3. Click Process
4. Check outputs in _prodc/ (or your selected output folder)

Run CLI

python3 app.py --cli \
  --input /path/a.pdf /path/b.pdf \
  --template /Users/shuzishuai/reduction/templates/templateA.json \
  --output-dir /path/_prodc

Notes:

• If --template is omitted in CLI, built-in default_auto is used
• If --output-dir is omitted, output goes to each source file's sibling _prodc/

Tkinter on Homebrew Python

If GUI launch fails with No module named '_tkinter', install Tk support:

brew install python-tk@3.13
deactivate  # if venv is active
rm -rf .venv
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Validation (Acrobat Acceptance Check)

In Acrobat Pro:

1. Open processed PDF
2. Use Select All Objects
3. Verify sensitive regions have no recoverable selectable objects

Project Files

• app.py: GUI + CLI entry
• redaction_engine.py: core redaction engine
• templates/templateA.json: Template A
• templates/templateB.json: Template B
• requirements.txt: dependencies