Pixelate Image
Pixelate an image or hide part of it in blocks.
Runs in your browser, nothing is uploadedFree, no signupNo watermark
Drop an image here
or click to choose one. It never leaves your device.
Three steps
How to use the pixelate image
- 01
Drop in your image
Add the photo containing something you want obscured.
- 02
Set the block size
Larger blocks destroy more information. For faces and text, go coarser than looks necessary.
- 03
Download the pixelated image
The original detail is gone from the file, not hidden behind an overlay.
Why this one
What makes it different
Destroys rather than obscures
Averaging a region into a single block throws the underlying detail away, which is what makes it safer than a blur for anything sensitive.
Block size you control
The security of pixelation is entirely a function of block size, so it is a setting rather than a fixed default.
Nothing to peel off
Unlike a black box drawn in a PDF or a layer in an editor, there is no overlay sitting above intact pixels waiting to be removed.
How this tool handles your files
- Where it runs
- Your browser, not a server
- Uploads
- None, ever
- Account
- Not required
- Watermark
- Never added
The short version
About pixelate image
Pixelation is what to reach for when the goal is that something cannot be read, rather than that it looks softened. The distinction matters more than it sounds: reconstructing text from a light blur is a solved problem, and the safe version of this job is always coarser blocks than feel necessary at the time.
Questions
Pixelate Image FAQ
Is pixelation safe for hiding private information?
At a coarse block size, yes: the original pixels are averaged away and cannot be recovered. At a fine block size it is not, because enough structure survives for the content to be guessed, especially for text and numbers.
How big should the blocks be?
Large enough that the shape is unreadable. For a face, at least a tenth of the face width. For text, big enough that individual character shapes disappear entirely.
Can pixelation be reversed?
Not from the image itself once the blocks are coarse, because the information is genuinely gone. Fine pixelation over known content, like a fixed-format number, has been reconstructed before, which is the argument for going coarser.
Should I use blur or pixelate?
Pixelate for privacy, blur for aesthetics. Blur smooths detail while leaving traces of it; coarse pixelation replaces whole regions with their average.
Free, and staying free
The tools are free because the icons are the business.
Thridy is a library of thousands of 3D icons in one consistent style, free for commercial use with no attribution and no account. The tools exist so you never have to upload an image to somebody else's server to resize it.
Keep going
More image tools
Blur Image
Apply a smooth Gaussian blur by any amount.
Sharpen Image
Bring out edges and detail with a sharpen pass.
Brightness
Brighten or darken an image.
Contrast
Increase or soften the contrast of an image.
Saturation
Make colours richer or more muted.
Grayscale
Convert an image to black and white.