Understanding Your Redacted PDF Export Bundle
What files are included in your export, what the verification certificate contains, and how to use them.
Last updated: May 13, 2026
ZIP Bundle Contents
Pro exports, and exports from the one-document trial, contain two files in a ZIP archive. Core and Flex Pack exports are a single redacted PDF without the verification certificate - see Compare Plans for what each tier includes.
The Redacted PDF
- Your document with approved redactions applied
- Includes a certificate page (first or last, per your settings) with QR code
- Redactions are permanent - underlying text is destroyed, not hidden
- Text layer restored via OCR for accessibility (included on every current plan)
- No source metadata survives - the file is rebuilt from page images (see detection coverage & limitations)
The Verification Certificate (verify.json)
A machine-readable file containing the cryptographic evidence a recipient uses to confirm your document is exactly what was exported.
Who Sees What: the Export Decision Tree
An export produces two kinds of artefact with two different audiences. Everything inside the PDF travels with the document to whoever you send it to; everything inside the audit ZIP stays with you as your own record. Nothing in the ZIP is needed for a recipient to verify the document.
| Artefact | Where it lives | Audience | What it says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate page | Appended to the PDF | The recipient | This document is sealed - scan the QR or visit the verifier to confirm it is unaltered |
| Redaction schedule | Appended to the PDF if your summary format includes it | The recipient | What each reference (R01, R02...) withheld, by category and exemption code - never the values |
| verify.json | Audit ZIP | You (and anyone you choose to give it to) | The signed cryptographic certificate - enables a fully offline verification |
| redaction-log CSV | Audit ZIP | You - internal record, spreadsheets, case systems | The same schedule as machine-readable rows |
Choosing a summary format
Settings → Certificates & Exports → summary format controls how much the certificate discloses to the recipient:
- Page aggregate - totals only ("7 redactions across 1 page"). Choose this when you do not want to disclose the structure of what was withheld - common in litigation, where the redaction log is your record and is produced on request rather than volunteered.
- Per-redaction - a reference table, one row per redaction with its category and any exemption code. Choose this when the recipient is entitled to the schedule - FOI and EIR responses, subject access requests, and publication schemes expect it.
- Both - totals on the certificate page plus the full table.
Whichever you choose for the PDF, your own audit ZIP always carries the complete per-redaction record. The setting only changes what travels.
Automatic vs manual, on the certificate
The certificate counts how redactions came to be: automatic means proposed by detection (pattern matching or on-device AI) and approved by you; manual means you created it yourself - a drawn box, a word selection, or a redact-list term. Items you add through the redact list keep their manual provenance even though they pass through the same review-and-approve step as detected items. Either way, the certificate's core statement holds: every redaction was reviewed and approved by a person. The automatic/manual split is diagnostic detail; the review guarantee is the part that carries weight.
For legal and FOI work, the exemption code on each redaction is the field that does the justifying - it records the ground (privilege, third-party data, a statutory exemption) the way a disclosure schedule expects. Categories say what kind of thing was withheld; codes say why.