Why blurring sensitive text isn't enough
Blurred and pixelated text looks hidden, but it often isn't. What visual obscuring actually does to your pixels, why it can be reversed, and what secure redaction means.
6 min read · Reviewed July 2026
Hide faces in a photo
Sharing a photo of a crowd, your kids' school event, or a protest often means some faces in it aren't yours to publish. Covering them before posting is basic courtesy, and in some places a legal requirement.
Draw a box over each face and choose how to hide it. Solid black is genuinely irreversible; pixelation looks friendlier and is fine for casual privacy, though the tool is honest that it's a visual effect rather than secure redaction. For photos of strangers, that distinction usually matters less than for a bank statement, so pick what suits the situation.
Processed locallyIn: PNG, JPEG, WebPOut: PNG, JPEG, WebP
Loading tool…
This is Redact Image preconfigured for this task — open the full tool for every option.
How it works
Drop or select an image — it opens locally in the editor.
Draw rectangles over sensitive content in Secure Black, Secure White, or Custom Solid mode.
Optionally switch to Blur or Pixelate for non-confidential cosmetic obscuring (a persistent warning explains the difference).
Review the region list, then export. The final image is rasterized into brand-new pixels.
The tool re-decodes the output and verifies every secure region contains only replacement pixels before offering the download.
What the tool does
- Secure Black, Secure White, and Custom Solid redaction modes
- Blur and Pixelate visual-obscuring modes, clearly labelled as non-secure
- Editable region list with per-region mode, delete, and one-click convert-to-secure
- One-click conversion of all blur/pixelate regions to secure solid redaction
- Pixel-level verification that secure regions contain only the replacement color
- Metadata (EXIF/GPS) is not carried into the exported image
How the result is verified
After export the tool decodes the output bytes again and samples every secure region to confirm the pixels exactly match the replacement color, and confirms the output carries no EXIF metadata. If any check fails, the download is blocked and marked Failed verification.
Frequently asked questions
Pixelate or black box for faces?
Solid black is the only option that provably removes the face. Pixelation reads as softer, and for everyday photos of strangers it's the common choice, but treat it as cosmetic rather than secure.
Why isn't there automatic face detection?
Automatic detection needs an ML model download and it misses faces, which is worse than knowing you're doing it by hand. Manual boxes take a few seconds and you can see exactly what's covered.
Understand the format
Technical guidance for choosing settings and reviewing the result.
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