Your old proposal template has client emails scattered throughout — example emails, real ones, contact lists. You're reusing the template for a new client and need every old email gone, but you can't manually scan 40 pages for them.
A regex pattern catches every email in one search. Flint applies redaction across all matches.
The email regex
Open redact PDF, enable regex mode in find-and-redact. Paste a basic email pattern: '[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\\.[A-Z|a-z]{2,}'. Flint finds every match — work emails, personal emails, fake examples. Review the matches, apply redaction.
Inspect matches before applying
Patterns can over-match. Flint shows you what was found before you apply. Scroll the list — anything that's not an email (e.g. a code snippet that happens to match the pattern) should be deselected. For most documents the pattern is reliable enough that you apply directly.
Replace vs blank-out
If you want emails replaced with 'example@example.com' or similar, redact strips the underlying content but the visible mark is a black box. For literal replacement, edit PDF to type replacements after redaction.
Don't forget mailto links
Emails sometimes appear as both visible text AND as clickable hyperlinks. Redacting the visible text doesn't remove the link's target. Use edit PDF to remove hyperlinks, or extract them with a separate inspection tool. Otherwise clicking a 'redacted' email might still open the email client with the original address.
FAQ
Will the regex catch all email formats?
Standard formats yes. Exotic addresses with quoted local parts may need a more permissive pattern.
Can I redact emails in image-based PDFs?
If OCR has been run, yes. Pure images need manual selection.
Does redacting also remove hyperlinks?
Visible text yes; underlying hyperlink targets may persist. Inspect via edit PDF and clear links separately.
Will the file size shrink after redaction?
Slightly — redacted text removed plus black overlay added. Roughly neutral.
Pattern, find, mark, apply. Redact emails everywhere.