Redact text in screenshots and photos, in two seconds, on device.
Black Highlighter snaps clean black bars over names, emails, account numbers, and anything else you don't want to share. Nothing leaves your phone.
For iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Try it →
Drag across the text to redact it.
From: ned@leftorium.shop
Phone: (458) 555-8904
Account: 2918-7843-8121-7289
Address: 744 Evergreen Terrace
DOB: June 7, 1959
Before
From:
Phone:
Account:
Address:
DOB:
After
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Magic Highlighter snaps to text — and covers it perfectly.
Drag a stroke across any name, email, or account number. Black Highlighter detects the bounds and lays down a clean, opaque bar. Neater than a finger, and harder to guess at than wobbly hand-drawn rectangles.
Six small things that compound into one fast workflow.
01
No peeking
Redactions are permanent and flattened. Once your image is saved, no amount of photo editing can uncover what you hid.
02
Not just black
Use white to redact in dark mode. Pick different colors for different participants in a group chat so you can show structure without showing names.
03
Multi-lingual
Black Highlighter supports redacting text auf Deutsch, 中文, 한국어, Українська, العربية, and many other languages.
04
Paper or plastic?
Even printed receipts, prescriptions, and tickets are no problem. Scan with your phone's camera and Black Highlighter auto-crops the page so you can redact and share immediately.
05
Set-and-forget rules
Tell Black Highlighter to always cover phone numbers, addresses, or emails. Drop in any screenshot and it's redacted by the time you tap Share.
06
Taking shortcuts
Wire up Black Highlighter inside the Shortcuts app. One tap from the share sheet to a fully redacted, ready-to-send screenshot.
Made for every Apple device — properly
Three apps that each feel right at home.
iPhone
Share-sheet first
Redact a screenshot the second you take it. Tap Share, pick Black Highlighter, drag, send. No round-trip through Photos.
iPad
Apple Pencil precision
Redact handwritten notes, marked-up PDFs, and Procreate canvases with Pencil. Pencil Pro support lets you swap colors and tools with a tap or squeeze.
Mac
Copy, paste, redact
Start with an image on your clipboard and Black Highlighter opens it pre-redacted with your common rules. Built for the moment before you paste into Slack.
Eight common redactions, one quick app
Boarding passes
Hide the booking ref before posting your trip pic.
Bank statements
Redact account & routing numbers before sending to landlords.
Group chats
Color-code participants and hide their names in a screenshot.
Medical bills
Cover patient IDs and provider numbers before sharing with family.
Resumes & contracts
Show the layout, hide the people, before posting examples.
Kids in photos
Block out school logos, addresses, and your kid's name with one stroke.
ID & passports
Prove the format, not the number, when uploading documents.
Work screenshots
Strip customer names from bug reports and design reviews.
Your secrets stay on your device. Period.
On-device
All redaction runs on your phone. The image never leaves it.
No accounts
No sign-up, no login, no email collected. Ever.
Keep your photos
Open only the image you want to redact, not your whole library.
Offline
Works in airplane mode. Useful at airports, hospitals, and abroad.
Why not just use the system markup tool?
Honest comparison. The right tool depends on what you're hiding.
| Black Highlighter | iOS Markup | macOS Preview | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snaps to text automatically | ● | ○ | ○ |
| Editable after save | ● | ○ | ● |
| Truly opaque (no faint outline) | ● | ○ | ○ |
| Works on scanned paper documents | ● | ○ | ● |
| Per-contact color coding | ● | ○ | ○ |
| Shortcuts support | ● | ○ | ○ |
| Truly on-device | ● | ● | ● |
Questions worth answering before you download
Is the redaction permanent?
Yes. When you export the redacted image, the pixels under the bars are flattened; there's no hidden layer to peel back. Saved files contain only the redacted pixels.
Does Black Highlighter upload my photos anywhere?
No. Everything happens on your device. The app does not connect to any server, and works fully offline.
Will the redaction survive screenshots and re-shares?
Yes. Once exported, the bars are baked into the image. Forwarding, screenshotting, or printing it is fully redacted.
Can someone reverse the redaction?
Black Highlighter uses fully opaque solid-color bars (not blur or pixelation) so there is no statistical signal left to reverse-engineer.
Does it work on languages other than English?
Yes. The Magic Highlighter snaps to text in any language Apple's on-device OCR supports, including non-Latin scripts.
How much does it cost?
Black Highlighter is free to download. A one-time purchase or subscription (your choice!) unlocks the document scanner, automatic rules, and Shortcuts integration.