Image privacy redaction — Settings and quality

Worked example

Set Brush size (8-160 px) and Pixel size (6-48 px, default 18); for names and numbers use blocks of at least 30 px.

Pixel size is the setting that decides how safe the result is. Each block is replaced by the average colour of its pixels, so a 6 px block leaves the shapes of letters guessable, while a 36 to 48 px block turns a line of 16 px text into a few flat tiles. For names, addresses and order numbers, use at least 30 px; keep 18 px only for large, non-sensitive items such as a background face in a team photo.

The brush is measured in screen pixels, not image pixels. On a large screenshot shown small on your display, a 44 px brush can look generous while covering only a modest area of the image, so make strokes that clearly overshoot the text on all sides. Blocks work on a grid, and any block the brush touches is replaced as a whole.

The tradeoff is looks versus protection. Big blocks look heavy but hide more; small blocks keep the layout readable but can leak. Pixelation is not the same as an opaque box, so for passwords, keys and ID numbers treat it as a last resort and prefer cropping the strip out.

The common mistake is a quick light stroke through the middle of a line. Fix: paint a band that covers the full height of the text with a margin of a few pixels, then use Erase mark to tidy the overshoot on neighbouring items.

Screenshot with a marked private region

Export with manually covered region

A pixel size of at least 30 px is a sensible floor for text, and smaller values should be kept for non-sensitive areas.