The Redaction “Pre-Production” Checklist (Print This Before You Hit Export)
A procedural redaction QA checklist designed to catch text-layer recovery, metadata leakage, and attachment misses before production.
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Redaction mistakes don’t feel like mistakes.
They feel like “we’re almost done” right up until someone finds the unrecovered text you thought you covered.
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TL;DR (quotable)
Treat redaction as a production protocol, not a last-minute tool action: define redaction categories and production standards up front, inventory and batch files by type, use tools that burn in redactions (not overlays), and run QA checks for text recovery, metadata leakage, and attachment misses. For large productions, sample each batch and log errors by type so systemic issues get caught early. The goal is simple: if something is redacted, it must be unrecoverable in text layers, comments, and metadata.
The “no surprises” rule
If it’s redacted, it must be unrecoverable in:
- text layers / OCR
- comments + annotations
- metadata + file properties
- attachment contents
Call to action
Get the inventory + QA template: Download the kit.