Pixelate or blur parts of an image
Screenshots and photos often contain more than you intended to share: e-mail addresses, order numbers, faces of bystanders, licence plates, QR codes on tickets. This photo censor lets you select any rectangle and pixelate it, blur it or cover it with a solid black box, then download the redacted image.
Which effect should you use?
| Effect | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pixelate | Faces, backgrounds, a recognisable "censored" look | Larger blocks hide more; small text needs a high strength |
| Blur | Soft, less distracting redaction | Weak blur on text can sometimes be reversed; use high strength |
| Black box | Passwords, account numbers, anything sensitive | The only option that removes the information completely |
A word on security
Pixelation and blur hide details from casual viewers, but researchers have shown that lightly pixelated text can sometimes be reconstructed. For passwords, card numbers, tokens and similar secrets, always use the black box. The tool paints the effect into the image pixels themselves, so the original content is not hidden in a layer that could be removed.
Working with several areas
Each click on Apply to selection permanently applies the effect to the current area; draw another selection and apply again. You can mix effects, for example black boxes for names and pixelation for faces. Undo all restores the original image.
Checklist: redacting a screenshot before you post it
- Crop first. Remove toolbars, other tabs and notification pop-ups you do not need; less image means less to check.
- Black-box the identifiers. Email addresses, order and ticket numbers, API keys and anything in a URL bar.
- Pixelate people. Faces and profile pictures of others in a chat or video call.
- Look for repeats. The same name often appears twice, for example in a message header and again in a signature, or in the browser tab title.
- Check small print. QR codes and barcodes on tickets or parcels can be scanned from a photo, so cover them completely.
- Review at 100%. Zoom in on the download before sharing it.
Before you publish
Also remove hidden data: photos can carry GPS coordinates in their metadata, which the EXIF remover strips. Downloads created here do not contain EXIF data because they are rendered from a canvas. To cut away unneeded parts entirely, use the image cropper.
Choosing the strength
For pixelation, the strength is the block size in pixels: 16 is enough to anonymise a face in a typical phone photo, while text in a high-resolution screenshot may need 24 or more. For blur, the strength controls the blur radius. Look at the result at 100% zoom before downloading — details that look hidden in a small preview can still be legible in the full-size image. Selections can be resized with the handles and moved by dragging inside them before you apply the effect.
Privacy
Everything happens locally in your browser with JavaScript and the Canvas API. Your images are never uploaded to our servers, so the tool also works with confidential screenshots and personal photos.