Softonic

Image Blur Tool

Step 1 / 3

Sharing a screenshot of a dashboard or a photo from a meet-up often means hiding a face, an address bar, or a piece of ID first. This blur tool applies an adjustable Gaussian blur to the whole image, strong enough to obscure faces and details beyond recognition, all in your browser so the unblurred original never leaves your device.

How to blur an image

  1. 1

    Drop an image

    JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF and more, up to 30 MB.

  2. 2

    Set the blur radius

    Drag the slider from 0 to 50 px; a higher radius blurs more strongly.

  3. 3

    Preview the result

    The preview updates instantly, so you can compare before exporting.

  4. 4

    Export

    Download the blurred image as PNG; the original stays unchanged.

Blur is not always enough

Gaussian blur redistributes pixel values but does not delete information, the right adversary with enough compute can partially reverse weak blurs, and some patterns (license plates, text) are famously easy to de-blur with modern image models.

Redaction strength

Method Reversible by modern tools
Light blur (radius 5-10) Yes, easily
Strong blur (radius 20+) Partially, with AI help
Pixelation Partially (mosaic reverse)
Solid black rectangle No
Solid colour replacement No

If you are hiding anything truly sensitive (passwords, financial numbers, personal IDs), blur alone is not sufficient for legal or security-grade redaction. For the strongest effect, use the maximum radius of 50 px, or better, crop the sensitive region out of the image before sharing.

Face obscuring

On a 1000 × 1000 image, a radius of 25-40 px usually hides a face well enough for practical recognition. Because the blur covers the whole image, every face in the photo is obscured at once.

Whole-image blur

  • The blur always applies to the entire image, so every region is covered in one pass.
  • Use a low radius (5-10 px) for a soft background effect.
  • Use 25-40 px to obscure faces and details in photos.
  • Use the maximum radius (50 px) for heavy obscuring of everything.
  • To hide only one region, crop the image first, then blur the rest.

Privacy

The image is processed entirely in your browser using the HTML canvas API. Nothing is uploaded, so you can blur confidential screenshots without worrying about the tool retaining them.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Even a strong Gaussian blur retains some information, and short high-entropy strings like passwords can sometimes be partially recovered. For anything security-sensitive, crop the password out of the image or use a dedicated redaction tool.

Yes, the blur always applies to the whole image. This is useful for creating background images where the subject should be indistinct.

No. The blur is applied locally in your browser. Nothing leaves your device, so confidential screenshots stay confidential.

No. This tool blurs the entire image. If only one region needs to be hidden, crop the image to remove that region before sharing it.

Related Tools

Image Resizer

Resize images to pixel-exact dimensions or percentages while preserving aspect ratio. Batch-friendly, no upload.

Material Design Color Picker

Browse the Material Design color palette. Copy any shade (50 through A700) as HEX, RGB or HSL with one tap.

QR Code Generator

Generate a browser-local QR code from a plain text or URL payload. Adjust size, colours and error correction, then download PNG.

Meme Generator

Add fixed top and bottom captions to a JPG, PNG, or WebP image in your browser. Set font, size, colors, and stroke, then download a PNG.

Barcode Generator

Create a 1D barcode in your browser in Code 128, EAN, UPC, ITF-14 and other supported formats. Download the rendered result as SVG or PNG.

Tier List Maker

Create a private tier list with text and local images. Customize rows, rank by drag or keyboard, recover locally, and export JSON, PNG or SVG.

Tool available in other languages