Censor part of an image
Drag a box over what should not be seen, such as a face, a number plate, an address or a line of a screenshot, and hide it with squares, a blur or a solid block. Add as many areas as you need before downloading.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing is uploaded
- No sign-up
- No watermark
Drag & drop your image here
or tap to browse · you can also paste from the clipboard
JPG · PNG · WebP · GIF · BMP · AVIF · SVG · up to 50 MB each
Choose an imageBefore
Result
Processed image will appear here.
How to use the image censor tool
Add the picture, drag the box over the area to hide and resize it by its corners. Choose Pixelate, Blur or Solid block. Press "Add another area" for each further face, plate or line of text, then download. For anything truly secret, use the solid block.
- Add your imageA box appears in the middle of the picture.
- Cover what should be hiddenDrag the box, resize it, and use "Add another area" for more.
- Choose how and downloadPixelate, blur or a solid block, then save the result.
About this tool
Most pictures that need censoring only need it in one or two places. Here you place a box on the picture by hand, resize it by its corners, and choose how the area is hidden. "Add another area" keeps that box and gives you a fresh one, so a group photo or a long screenshot can be finished in one pass.
The picture never leaves your device, which matters more for this job than for most: the whole point is that the original should not be seen. The downloaded file is built from the censored pixels only. It carries no hidden copy of the original, no layers, and none of the original file's metadata or embedded thumbnail.
What you get
- Pixelate, blur or cover with a solid block
- Any number of areas in one picture
- Solid block in black or any colour
- No copy of the original inside the download
- Runs on your device, with no upload
When to use the image censor tool
Screenshots before sharing
Cover names, email addresses, order numbers and message previews in a screenshot before it goes into a chat, a ticket or a post.
Faces of people who did not agree to be shown
Bystanders, children and customers can be pixelated out of a photo that is otherwise fine to publish.
Number plates and house numbers
A vehicle listing or a street photo can be posted without identifying the car or the address.
Documents and ID cards
A solid block over an ID number, a signature or a date of birth lets you send proof of a document without sending all of it.
Choosing a method
| Method | What is left of the area | Good for | Not for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid block | Nothing: one flat colour | Passwords, numbers, addresses, signatures | Pictures where a block would look heavy-handed |
| Pixelate, strength 60 or more | About ten squares or fewer across the area | Faces, plates, logos | Short text that must stay secret |
| Blur, strength 60 or more | A smear of colour | Faces and backgrounds, a softer look | Short text that must stay secret |
| Pixelate or blur at low strength | A coarse version of the original | Toning something down | Hiding anything at all |
How it works
Each marked area is treated on its own. Pixelating divides the area into squares sized from the area, between about twenty squares across its shorter side at the lowest strength and four at the highest, and fills each with its average colour. Blurring applies a Gaussian blur whose radius is between 5% and 30% of the area's shorter side, computed from the pixels inside the box only, so nothing from outside bleeds in and nothing inside leaks out. The solid block simply overwrites every pixel in the box with the colour you chose.
What makes a censored picture safe to share is what the file does not contain. The download is encoded from the finished pixels alone. There is no layer underneath, and the original file is not embedded in it. Its metadata is not copied either, which matters because photos from cameras and phones often carry a small preview thumbnail inside their EXIF data, and a picture that was censored in a way that left the thumbnail alone would still show the original there. Averaging methods do leave information behind, though: a pixelated or blurred area is a low-detail summary of what was there, and for content with few possibilities, such as a row of digits in a known typeface, that summary can sometimes be matched against candidates. A flat colour leaves nothing to match.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The box will not cover the area exactly
- Drag a corner handle to resize it, and drag the middle to move it. With the box selected, the arrow keys nudge it in small steps, or larger ones with Shift held.
- I need to hide more than one thing
- Position the box on the first, press "Add another area", then move the new box to the next. Saved areas are outlined on the picture. "Remove saved areas" clears them if one is wrong.
- I can still make out the face or the text
- Raise the strength, or make the box a little bigger than the thing itself. If it is text or a number, switch to Solid block: that is the only method that leaves nothing readable.
- The area I need is not a rectangle
- Only rectangles can be marked. Cover an awkward shape with two or three overlapping boxes using "Add another area".
Frequently asked questions
Which is safest: pixelate, blur or a solid block?
The solid block. It replaces the area with one flat colour, so nothing of what was there remains. Pixelating and blurring keep a rough average of the original, which is fine for making a face unrecognisable but can leave short pieces of text, such as digits, open to guessing when the squares are small or the blur is light. For passwords, card and account numbers, ID numbers and addresses, use the block.
Does it find faces automatically?
No. Nothing on this page detects faces, number plates or text. You place each box yourself, which also means nothing is hidden or left showing by a wrong guess.
Can someone undo the censoring?
Not from the file you download. It contains only the finished picture: the hidden pixels are not stored beneath the block, and the original file's metadata and preview thumbnail, which in some photos still show the uncensored picture, are not carried over. What cannot be controlled is whether an uncensored copy exists somewhere else.
Can I censor several pictures at once?
No. A box is placed on one particular picture, and the same position would cover something different on the next. Each image is done separately.
Is my picture uploaded to be censored?
No. The picture is opened and processed by your own browser and is never sent to a server. You can check by loading this page, switching off your internet connection and using it.
Can I choose the colour of the block?
Yes. Pick Solid block and a colour control appears, set to black. White is often neater on documents and screenshots with a light background.
Will this remove the location data from my photo too?
Yes, as a side effect. The download is a newly encoded image and carries none of the original's metadata, including GPS position and camera details. If removing metadata is all you want, the EXIF Remover does that without changing the picture.