How it works
- Drop your images.
- Draw or paint over areas, or click Detect faces.
- Pick an effect and download the redacted images.
Why use it
- Face detection finds faces of any size, small ones in a crowd too, with a 0.2 MB model that ships with the site.
- Boxes, ovals and a freehand brush, each with its own effect and strength.
- Move and resize any area with its handles, undo and redo, zoom and pan.
- Batch export with a ZIP.
Blurring and redacting parts of a photo safely
Choosing the right effect
Blur and pixelation are fine for faces, number plates and backgrounds, where the aim is that people cannot recognise something at a glance. They are not safe for text. A pixelated password or account number keeps the rough shape of each character, and tools exist that rebuild pixelated text from screenshots by trying letters until the blocks match. For anything that must stay secret, use Black out or Color, which replace the pixels completely and leave nothing to reconstruct.
| Effect | Good for | Not for |
|---|---|---|
| Pixelate | Faces, number plates, screens in the background | Passwords, codes, ID numbers |
| Blur | Faces and backgrounds, with a softer look | Text of any kind |
| Black out | Text, numbers, signatures, anything secret | Photos where a black box would distract |
| Color | The same as black out, in a colour that suits the picture | Nothing: it is as safe as black out |
The strength of pixelation and blur can be set for all areas and for each area on its own. Stronger is safer: at low strength a face can stay recognisable to someone who knows the person.
Marking what to hide
Drag a box or an oval over each area, or switch to the brush and paint over shapes that are not rectangular, such as a name on a curved sign. Every area can be selected, moved and resized afterwards, and undo and redo work as in any editor. Zoom in for small details.
Detect faces finds faces of any size, including small ones in a crowd, and marks each with an oval. Room around a face widens the ovals so hair and ears are covered too. Check the result: profiles, faces in shadow and faces partly hidden by hands or masks can be missed, so add any the detector did not find by hand. Detection runs on your device with a small model that is downloaded once.
Hiding everything except one part
Hide everything except the areas turns the effect around: the marked areas stay sharp and the rest of the picture is blurred or blacked out. Use it to share one line of a document, one person in a group photo or one item on a busy screenshot.
What is in the saved file
The effect is drawn into the pixels before the picture is saved, so the original content is not hidden underneath and cannot be uncovered. The saved file is a fresh picture without camera metadata, which can otherwise give away the location or the device. Pictures keep their format, PNG and WebP as they are and the rest as JPG; PNG is the best choice for screenshots, since text and boxes keep clean edges. For PDF documents, use redact PDF, which removes the text itself and not only how it looks; how to redact a PDF explains why that difference matters.
If something goes wrong
- It says no areas are marked. Each picture needs at least one area. Drag on the picture, use the brush, or run Detect faces.
- A face was not found. Mark it by hand with an oval. Faces turned sideways or in deep shadow are the usual misses.
- Face detection failed. The model could not be loaded or run in this browser. Marking areas by hand always works.
- The text under a blur is still readable. Raise the strength, or better, use Black out.
Questions and answers
Which effect is safest?
Black out is the only one that cannot be reversed. Strong pixelation and blur can sometimes be undone for text, so use black out for passwords, tokens and ID numbers.
How accurate is face detection?
It finds faces from about 10 to 300 pixels across, including small faces in a crowd, but a face that is turned away or half hidden can be missed. Always review the result, and paint over anything it missed with the brush.
Is my picture uploaded?
No. Detection and redaction both run in your browser.
Related guides
How to redact a PDF properly
We hid the private details in a statement four different ways, then tried to get them back. Black boxes and a scanned copy gave up every detail. Only one method left nothing behind.