Blur Part of an Image Online
Blur a selected region of a photo or screenshot. Draw a rectangle over a face, address, license plate, ID number, or other private area and download a new PNG with that area softened. The operation is manual by design: it does not claim to detect every face or number plate, and it does not quietly decide which content is sensitive, because a rectangle may miss moving subjects, edges, reflections, or duplicated information, inspect the entire exported image before sharing it. For strong secrecy, crop or remove sensitive pixels rather than relying on a reversible-looking blur.
Use this without the search next time. Prathom Workbench puts Prathom's tools in your toolbar.
Add to Chrome — freeWhat it does
- Manual rectangle selection
- Pixels replaced, not covered over
- Suitable for faces, plates, and text areas
- Re-draw selection before download
- No automatic detection claimed — you choose the region
How to use Blur Image Online
- 1
Choose the image
Drop a photo, screenshot or scan. It is shown to you first and leaves the original file untouched.
- 2
Draw over private content
Drag a rectangle around the complete area to soften. Include a margin around a face or plate and redraw if the first selection is not large enough.
- 3
Inspect every edge
Look for duplicate faces, reflections, background text, thumbnails, and pixels outside the selected region. A manual tool cannot know what you consider private.
- 4
Download and verify
Download the PNG, close or remove the source when appropriate, and inspect the actual file you plan to share rather than only the page preview.
How it works
Final privacy review
After downloading, close the original preview and reopen the exported PNG as a separate file. Look at the full canvas, not only the region you intended to blur. Search for the same name, address, face, number, or logo in side panels, reflections, browser chrome, watermarks, thumbnails, and duplicated screenshots. Keep the untouched source private; blur is a visual edit with a human review step, not a secure deletion method or a guarantee that sensitive information cannot be inferred.
The image is drawn to a canvas at its decoded pixel dimensions. Pointer coordinates are scaled from the displayed canvas back to those pixels, so a responsive preview still selects the right area on a high-resolution image. The selected rectangle is clipped, the source is drawn again with a Gaussian-like canvas blur filter, and a dashed outline marks the current selection in the preview. The outline is not included in the PNG download.
This is privacy assistance, not a redaction certification. Blur may leave recognizable shapes, and the page does not inspect pixels outside the rectangle, embedded metadata, alternate frames, or copies of the same information. The conservative workflow is to use a margin, inspect the entire output, and choose opaque removal when the data must be unrecoverable.
Blur versus secure redaction
When to use it
Blur changes visible pixels but does not establish that the underlying information is unrecoverable. A reviewer may infer a short word, face, or number from its shape, and a forgotten duplicate can remain elsewhere in the image. For a document that must conceal information, prefer opaque removal followed by an independent review of the exported file. Check thumbnails, reflections, browser previews, filenames, and embedded metadata as well as the main canvas. This tool is deliberately manual so you can see the region being changed, but that means the responsibility for finding every sensitive occurrence remains with you. Keep the untouched original private and share only the copy inspected at normal and enlarged zoom.
Use it for a quick social image, screenshot, classroom example, or low-risk photo where you need to soften one obvious region. Do not rely on it alone for identity documents, legal evidence, credentials, medical records, or confidential customer data. Preserve the source securely and share only the reviewed output.
Examples
Hiding a license plate in a street photo
Include the plate border and a small surrounding margin. Check reflections in windows and other vehicles because a single selected rectangle may not cover them.
Covering an address in a screenshot
Search the screenshot visually for the same address in a table, URL, tooltip, or notification. A blur edit is only as complete as the review that follows it.
Frequently asked questions
Does the blur tool automatically find faces or license plates?
No. You draw the region manually. That is explicit and predictable, but it means the tool cannot detect a second face, a reflection, or a plate outside your first selection. Review the complete image after export and use a dedicated detector only when you have a tested process for its false negatives.
Is a blurred area permanently removed from the source pixels?
The downloaded PNG contains the blurred canvas result and the original file is not modified, but blur is not the same as secure redaction. Some blur methods can leak information, and this tool does not provide a forensic guarantee. For sensitive documents, cover or remove pixels and verify the exported file independently.
Is my image uploaded while I blur it?
Yes. The image is sent to our server, blurred there, and returned; the upload is deleted as soon as that finishes and the result within 30 minutes. Nothing is stored and there is no account. What matters more for a redaction is that the blurred pixels are genuinely replaced rather than covered by an overlay — see below.
Can I blur several areas?
The current interaction applies one rectangle at a time to the preview and a new rectangle replaces the previous selection. For multiple areas, download one result, reopen that result, and repeat while checking that each earlier region remains obscured. Keep the original private until the final review is complete.
Further reading
- Choose an Image Format by Content, Not by What the File Is ForAdvice about image formats is usually organized by purpose — logos, photos, screenshots, icons. That works until you meet a logo that is a photograph or a screenshot of a video. A better question predicts the right answer in every case we measured, and it takes about two seconds to ask.
- Choose an Image Format by Where It Is GoingThere is no best image format, which is why comparison tables never settle the question. There is only a next program that has to open the file, and that program has opinions. Work backwards from it and the choice usually makes itself.
- Which of These Tools Run in Your BrowserThis post used to say almost every tool here ran in your browser. That stopped being true in August 2026, so it has been rewritten rather than quietly left up. Some tools still run entirely on your machine, many now run on our server, and the useful part is that you never have to take our word for which — you can check any of them yourself in ten seconds.