Why redact a screenshot before sharing it
Screenshots are one of the easiest ways to accidentally share more than you meant to. A bug report can include your email address in the corner of the screen. A chat screenshot can reveal someone else's name. A spreadsheet or dashboard screenshot can expose account numbers, internal figures, or other people's data that has nothing to do with the point you're actually trying to make. blurrer lets you black out or blur those details directly on the screenshot, right in your browser, before you post it anywhere, whether that's a public forum, a support ticket, or a message to a colleague.
It works the same way whether you're sharing a screenshot on a forum, in a support ticket, on social media, or with a colleague: upload the image, cover the parts that shouldn't be public, and download a clean version. The original, unredacted screenshot never has to be shared with anyone.
Common uses
- Sharing a bug report or support ticket screenshot publicly
- Posting a chat, DM, or email screenshot online
- Sharing a spreadsheet or dashboard screenshot with people outside your team
- Demonstrating a software issue on a forum, subreddit, or social media
- Including a screenshot in documentation or a tutorial that shouldn't show real data
How to redact a screenshot
The process is quick, and it works the same way whether your screenshot has one sensitive detail or a dozen:
- Take your screenshot first, using your device's normal screenshot tool.
- Upload it here. Drop the image in or click to choose the file.
- Zoom in if the text is small. Screenshots often pack a lot of detail into a small area — switch to Move and zoom in before you start covering anything.
- Use the Text box tool to draw a solid bar over each email, name, number, or other detail you want to hide. A solid box is generally the safer choice for text, since it fully removes the pixels rather than just blurring them.
- Repeat for every sensitive area, then zoom back out to check the whole image.
- Download as PNG (recommended for screenshots, since it keeps text sharp) or JPEG.
Tips for redacting a screenshot cleanly
Screenshots pack a lot into a small space, so it's easy to miss a detail on a first pass. After covering the obvious items, scroll and zoom through the whole image once more looking specifically for usernames, timestamps, and small print in headers or sidebars, which are the things people forget most often. If the same sensitive detail appears more than once in the same screenshot (an email in both a "to" field and a signature, for example), make sure to cover every instance, not just the first one you notice. This matters even more when a screenshot spans multiple messages or rows, since a name or number can easily repeat several times without standing out. And when you're redacting anything text-based, use the solid Text box rather than Blur. It's the more reliable choice for covering characters completely, which matters more for a screenshot than almost any other image type, since screenshots are often mostly text, and text is exactly what a weak blur is worst at fully hiding.
Frequently asked questions
Is blurring reversible?
No. Once an area is blurred and the image is downloaded, the original pixels have been discarded, not just covered up. For text specifically, though, we recommend the solid Text box over Blur (see below), since it removes any risk of partial legibility.
How secure are my uploads?
Your original screenshot is encrypted in your browser. The redacted version you download never leaves your device at all, it happens entirely in your browser.
Blur vs. black box — which should I use for text in a screenshot?
For text, use the solid Text box rather than Blur. Bold or large text can sometimes remain partially readable under a light or moderate blur, especially after the image is recompressed. A solid box completely overwrites the pixels underneath.
Does this work on PDFs or Word documents?
Not directly. blurrer works on image files (JPEG, PNG, WebP). If you need to redact a PDF or document, take a screenshot of the page you want to redact and upload that image instead.
Can I redact more than one area in the same screenshot?
Yes. Draw a separate box over each detail you want to hide, one at a time. There's no limit, and you can use Undo at any point if you need to adjust one before downloading.
Will redacting affect the image quality of the rest of the screenshot?
No. Only the area you cover with a box or blur is changed. The rest of the screenshot keeps its original resolution and sharpness when you download it, whether you save the result as a PNG or a JPEG.