Blur or redact part of an image
Blur, pixelate or black out part of an image, such as a face, a name or an account number, free and in your browser with no upload. The change is written into the pixels, so nothing can be lifted off the result.
Draw over what should not be seen. The pixels are destroyed, not hidden — the original cannot be recovered from the result.
In detail
The redact tool hides parts of an image by destroying the pixels underneath, pixelating, blurring or filling them, and writes that into the exported file rather than drawing a removable box on top. Drag across the picture to mark a region, or type its X, Y, width and height in real image pixels.
The export is built from a full-resolution copy of the file rather than the scaled preview, so every region destroys the pixels that were actually there. A light blur over small text can stay readable, so use a solid fill for anything that must never be recovered. Exporting also drops the photo's EXIF data, including any GPS location.
Blur or redact part of an image at a glance
- Input
- JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, GIF (first frame), BMP, TIFF, SVG and other image formats
- Output
- An image in the format you choose, saved as name-redacted
- What it does
- Pixelate, blur or solid fill
- Draw regions or type exact coordinates
- Several regions per image
- Full-resolution export
- Removes EXIF data as a side effect
- Who it is for
- Anyone sharing screenshots, documents or photos that show names, faces, addresses or account numbers.
- Limits
- One image at a time.
- A light blur can leave small text readable, so prefer a solid fill.
- Privacy
- Runs entirely in your browser: the file is never uploaded, and nothing is kept after you close the tab.
How to blur or redact part of an image
- Add the image Drop an image onto the page. Redact works on one image at a time and keeps the first if you drop several.
- Pick a method Choose pixelate, blur or solid fill. Pixelate takes a block size from 4 to 64 px, blur takes a radius from 2 to 40 px, and solid fill takes a color.
- Mark what to hide Drag across the image to draw a region, or type X, Y, width and height in the rail and press Add region. Every value is an image pixel.
- Adjust the regions Tab reaches each region. Arrow keys nudge it one pixel, shift plus an arrow moves it ten, and Delete removes it. The regions list on the stage shows each one's size and position.
- Export Choose an output format and press Export redacted image. The button stays disabled until at least one region exists, and the file is saved as name-redacted.ext.
Blur or redact part of an image: common questions
Can a redaction made here be undone or reversed?
No. File4Edit's redact tool replaces the pixels inside a region in the exported file rather than covering them with a box, so there is no layer to peel off and nothing to lift out of the result. Pixelate downsamples the region to one value per block and scales it back up, blur resamples it, and solid fill paints over it — each writes into the canvas that is then encoded.
Is a blur strong enough to hide small text?
Not necessarily. A light blur over small text can still be read, so keep the radius well above the stroke width of the letters, and if you pixelate, small text needs a block size of at least 16. Blur also depends on the browser being able to filter a canvas: where it cannot, the tool disables blur and tells you, because pixelate and solid fill destroy the same pixels without it.
Does redacting also remove the photo's metadata?
Yes, as a side effect. Exporting writes a new file from the canvas, so EXIF goes with it — the camera, the timestamp and any GPS location tag are not carried over into the redacted file.