Image Blur Tool

Gaussian Blur: Effect, Not Redaction

This tool exists for aesthetics and privacy softening — backgrounds behind text, gentle softening of skin or edges — not for hiding information: research has repeatedly recovered text and plates from blurred images via deconvolution. For anything sensitive, use the pixelator instead, whose block averaging is irreversible. The radius slider maps to how much high-frequency detail is removed; over-blurring text intended to stay readable is the most common over-correction.

Blur Is Not Always Redaction

A light blur hides detail from a casual viewer, but it is not a secure way to remove sensitive information. Text blurred with a small radius can sometimes be reconstructed, and pixelation has been reversed in the past. For account numbers, faces that must stay private or anything legally sensitive, cover the area with a solid opaque block.

Use blur for what it does well: softening a background, hiding a licence plate in a casual photo, or drawing attention to the subject. Paint slightly beyond the edge of the object so no sharp outline remains, and export a new copy so the original stays intact.