Why is drawing a black box in a PDF or document editor not enough?

Because the box is a separate layer drawn on top. The text beneath it is still in the file and can be selected, copied or extracted by anyone who opens it. Rendering the redaction into the pixels, as this tool does, removes the underlying content entirely.

Can a blurred or pixelated image be un-blurred?

Sometimes, for small text with a light effect, because the transformation discards less information than it appears to. Coarse pixelation and solid fill are not reversible. If the content really matters, use solid fill.

Which redaction method should I use for text?

Solid fill. Text has strong, predictable shapes, which is exactly what makes it the easiest thing to recover from a weak blur. Painting over it removes the shapes altogether.

Does this remove metadata from the image as well?

Re-encoding through a canvas drops the original EXIF block, including any GPS coordinates, as a side effect. If metadata is your main concern, the dedicated EXIF viewer and remover is the more direct tool.

Is the screenshot I redact uploaded anywhere?

No. The image is read into the page, redacted on a canvas and re-encoded on your device, so a screenshot containing private information never crosses the network.

Blur & Redact an Image

Permanently black out, pixelate or blur parts of a screenshot before you share it — the pixels are destroyed, not covered.

Blur & Redact Image runs entirely in your browser. The screenshot is redacted on a canvas on your device, and neither the original nor the result is uploaded.

Open the EXIF Viewer & Remover

About Blur & Redact Image

Blur & Redact Image removes information from a picture rather than hiding it. Drag boxes over the parts you want gone — an email address in a screenshot, a face, an account number on a statement — and choose solid fill, pixelation or blur. The marked pixels are overwritten on a canvas and the file is re-encoded from that canvas, so the original content is not sitting underneath the mark waiting to be recovered. That is the difference from drawing a black rectangle in a document editor, where the text below is still in the file and can be selected straight out of it. Coverage is reported as you work, and the file never leaves your device.

Features

Three methods: solid fill, pixelation and blur
Drag as many regions as you need over one image
Destructive by design — marked pixels are overwritten, not covered
Strength scaled to each region's size, so large areas are properly destroyed
Undo the last region or clear them all
Coverage readout showing what share of the image is redacted
Solid fill always exports as PNG to avoid compression artefacts at the edges
Runs on a canvas in your browser with no upload

How to use the Blur & Redact Image

Drop a screenshot or photo onto the box
Pick a method — solid fill is the safest for text
Drag a box over each area you want removed
Press Apply redaction and download the cleaned image

Example

Input

Screenshot with an email address and an account number

Output

Same screenshot with both regions filled solid black

The exported file has no recoverable original beneath the marks.

Common errors & troubleshooting

A blurred region is still faintly readable. — Raise the strength, or switch to solid fill. Light blurring of small type can sometimes be partially reversed, which is why fill is the recommended method for anything genuinely sensitive.
A drawn box disappears immediately. — Boxes under four pixels on a side are discarded as accidental clicks. Drag a larger area.
The download still shows the original underneath. — Press Apply redaction before downloading. The boxes on the preview are just markers until they are rendered into the image.
The output changed from JPEG to PNG. — Solid fill always exports as PNG so that JPEG compression does not smear detail around the hard edges of the mark, which could hint at what was underneath.

Frequently asked questions

Why is drawing a black box in a PDF or document editor not enough?: Because the box is a separate layer drawn on top. The text beneath it is still in the file and can be selected, copied or extracted by anyone who opens it. Rendering the redaction into the pixels, as this tool does, removes the underlying content entirely.
Can a blurred or pixelated image be un-blurred?: Sometimes, for small text with a light effect, because the transformation discards less information than it appears to. Coarse pixelation and solid fill are not reversible. If the content really matters, use solid fill.
Which redaction method should I use for text?: Solid fill. Text has strong, predictable shapes, which is exactly what makes it the easiest thing to recover from a weak blur. Painting over it removes the shapes altogether.
Does this remove metadata from the image as well?: Re-encoding through a canvas drops the original EXIF block, including any GPS coordinates, as a side effect. If metadata is your main concern, the dedicated EXIF viewer and remover is the more direct tool.
Is the screenshot I redact uploaded anywhere?: No. The image is read into the page, redacted on a canvas and re-encoded on your device, so a screenshot containing private information never crosses the network.

Related tools

EXIF Viewer & Remover — View and strip EXIF metadata (including GPS) from photos — nothing is uploaded.
Image Cropper — Crop an image to any area or fixed aspect ratio and download it, in your browser.
Image Optimizer — Re-encode and shrink images (JPEG/WebP/PNG), optionally resizing.
PDF Metadata Editor — View, edit or strip a PDF’s title, author, subject, keywords and producer.
Flip & Rotate Image — Rotate by 90° and flip images horizontally or vertically, then download — in your browser.
Image Format Converter — Convert images between PNG, JPEG and WebP entirely in your browser.