How to Blur Faces, License Plates and Private Text in a Photo

Short answer: draw a box over each face, license plate or line of text and apply a strong effect. For anything sensitive, choose the black box, because blurred or pixelated content can sometimes be guessed. Imgovo’s Blur & Pixelate tool works in your browser, so the original photo is not uploaded.

When to hide parts of a photo

Typical cases:

• Photos of children or bystanders that you want to publish.
• License plates in photos of cars you sell, or street scenes.
• Names, addresses and barcodes on parcels, letters and screens.
• Screenshots that contain account numbers, emails or messages.
• Documents where only part of the content should be visible.

Rules about publishing images of people differ between countries and situations, and this guide is not legal advice. If you publish photos of other people commercially or on behalf of an organisation, check the rules that apply to you.

Blur, pixelate or black box?

Effect	What it looks like	Best for
Blur	Soft haze	Faces and backgrounds when the look matters
Pixelate	Large visible blocks	Faces, license plates, obvious “censored” look
Black box	Solid black rectangle	Text, numbers, addresses, anything sensitive

The tool’s own recommendation is “Black box (safest for text)”. It also warns that blurred or pixelated content can sometimes be guessed. Short text, numbers and familiar faces are the main risks, and a light blur on large, clear text can still be read or guessed. A black box leaves nothing to reconstruct.

As a practical rule:

• Casual privacy (a bystander in a holiday photo): a strong blur or pixelation is usually enough.
• Sensitive details (account numbers, ID numbers, addresses, plates linked to a person): use the black box.
• Not sure: use the black box.

Step by step in Imgovo

1. Open the Blur & Pixelate tool and add your photo.
2. Choose the effect: Blur, Pixelate or Black box.
3. Draw a rectangle over each area you want to hide. You can add as many as you need.
4. Adjust each box. Drag it to move it, use the corner handle to resize it, and press × to delete it. On a keyboard, arrow keys move the selected box, Shift plus arrows resizes it, and Delete removes it. On a phone, drag with your finger or tap “+ Add area”.
5. Set the strength. The default is 50. Raise it until the detail is clearly gone.
6. Save as JPG, PNG or WebP.

There is also a “Whole image” option that applies the effect to the whole picture. Undo and Redo work with Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z.

Make the cover generous

Boxes that are too tight leave the edge of a face or the first and last characters of a plate visible. Draw the area a little bigger than the thing you hide. For text, cover the entire line, not only the part you think matters.

Check the result before you share

• Zoom in to 100% and look at the edges of every box.
• View the saved file, not only the preview.
• Look for the same detail somewhere else in the picture, such as a plate reflected in a window or a name on a second document.
• If the image will be viewed small, check it at full size as well, because people can enlarge it.

There is no hidden layer

Some editors keep the original under an effect, which can be exposed later. Imgovo replaces the original pixels in each selected area before saving, so the saved file contains only the changed pixels. The tool also drops EXIF data, such as GPS location and camera details, from the saved file. If you want to understand what else a photo can reveal, read How to remove GPS location and EXIF data from photos, or use Remove EXIF Data on its own.

Privacy of the tool itself

The editing happens on your device, and the photo is never uploaded. That matters most when the photo is the very thing you are trying to protect. Are online image converters safe? shows how to check this on any site.

Blur Background is a different tool

Imgovo also has Blur Background, which softens everything behind a subject for a portrait look. That is a photo effect, not a way to anonymise anything. To hide people or text, use Blur & Pixelate as described here.

Do it now

Open the Blur & Pixelate tool, draw boxes over what must be hidden and save a clean copy.