Learn how to easily hide, blur, or pixelate sensitive parts of a photo or screenshot on your Mac using built-in and third-party tools.
It’s always a good idea to blur or pixelate parts of an image or screenshot if it contains sensitive information that you wouldn’t want others to see. You should make this a habit before posting screenshots or other sensitive images to social media or sending them via email.
If you’re on a Mac, we will first tell you about two built-in ways to hide or cover up private portions of an image. After that, we will also tell you about an excellent third-party option. In addition to your computer, you can also just as easily blur, pixelate, and hide sensitive parts of a photo on an iPhone or iPad.
Method 1: Use the Preview app
Apple’s Preview app comes preinstalled on every Mac, and it’s a wonderful tool to not only open files but also edit them. You can use the shapes tool in Preview to cover sensitive parts of the photo. You can even use the color picker to hide the part in a color that matches a specific portion of the image.
1) Open a picture or screenshot in the Preview app.
2) Click the Markup icon.
3) Select the Shapes tool and pick the square option.
4) Now, click the Fill Color tool and select a desired color, such as black or red.
You can also click Show Colors and then use the picker to select a color from the image you’re working with.
5) After you fill the shape with a color, make sure it’s selected, and click the Border Color icon to set it to none by selecting the white box with a red slash. Alternatively, you can pick a border color for the shape if you want.
6) With a solid shape created, drag it over the portion of the image you want to hide. Use the eight dots on the edge to change the size.
You can also copy and paste this shape to duplicate it and change the shape’s color as needed.
7) Once you finish hiding the sensitive parts, hit the red close window button from the top left of the window to save the changes.
Method 2: Use the Retouch tool in Apple Photos app
The Photos app on your Mac has a built-in Retouch tool that can be used to remove anything you don’t want to be visible in an image or screenshot. This method doesn’t add a blur, but it will hide any sensitive information.
1) Launch the Photos app on your Mac and open an image. If the image is in a Finder folder, you can drag and drop it directly into the Photos app or click File > Import from the top menu bar and add it to the Photos app.
2) With the image open in the Photos app, click the Edit button from the top right corner.
3) Select the Retouch tool from the right toolbar and set the brush size.
4) Drag the circular brush on the part of the image that you want to hide.
5) The tool will now remove the selected portion. Therefore, that part of the image will appear smudged or erased, hiding the original information of the image or screenshot. If you’re happy with the results, click Done to save the changes.
With the sensitive part hidden, you can now drag this image from the Photos app and drop it on your Desktop or a Finder folder.
Method 3: Use CleanShot X
I use this app every day on my Mac to hide my phone number, email address, OTP, messages, and other sensitive parts of an image or screenshot. This is a paid app, and you can get it from Setapp or directly from its website.
1) Open CleanShot X app and you will see its icon in your Mac’s menu bar.
2) Click the CleanShot icon in the menu bar, select Open, and pick the image. You can also right-click a picture in Finder and select Open With > CleanShot X.
3) Once the image opens in the app, click the Redaction style button and choose Pixelate, Blue, or Black Out.
4) Now, use the tool over the sensitive portion of the image you want to hide. Remember to adjust the sensitivity using the slider on the top.
5) With the private parts blurred, pixelated, or blacked out, click Save As and Save the image. You can also hit the red close window icon from the top left and then save the image.
Pixelating or blurring images or screenshots is an excellent and easy way to protect your information. Of course, if you’re a professional image editor and deal with plenty of images, then you can use other apps such as Photoshop.
Check out next: How to redact or black out the sensitive text of a PDF on iPhone, iPad, and Mac