How to blur faces and text in a photo on your Mac

Preview, the Mac's built-in image editor, can't blur or pixelate part of a picture. Its Markup tools can cover something with a filled shape, which is a fine redaction for a screenshot. Photos can pixelate a face, but only by accident of its Clean Up tool, on Macs with Apple Intelligence.

For a real blur or pixelate, and for finding every face or line of text for you, you need an app. Koi's Shift wheel has a Redact tool that does both. We make Koi, so read that part knowing that. Apple's steps come from its guides, checked October 21, 2026.

A solid box is the safest way to hide text anyway, and Preview draws one. From Apple's guide to annotating an image:

1. Duplicate the picture first (File, Duplicate), because annotations on an image can't be changed after you save.
2. Open it in Preview and click Show Markup Toolbar if the tools aren't showing.
3. Click Shapes and choose the rectangle. Drag it over what you want hidden, and resize it with the blue handles.
4. Click Fill Color and pick black, or any solid colour. Set Border Color to match.
5. Choose File, Save.

Apple notes that once you save annotations on an image file, you can't edit, move or delete them. That's what you want for a redaction: the box becomes part of the picture. Preview also has a Redact tool, but it's for text in PDFs, not for photos.

The Clean Up tool in Photos removes things from a photo, and Apple says that if you brush over a person's face, the face may become blurred with a pixelated effect. You can use that on purpose:

1. In Photos, double-click the photo and click Edit.
2. Click Tools, then Clean Up.
3. Click the brush below Erase and brush over the face.
4. Click Done.

It needs Apple Intelligence, which isn't on every Mac, language or region, and Apple says may, not will. It also changes the photo in your library, so duplicate it first. It's for faces only, not for text.

1. Start dragging the photo or screenshot.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. A wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop it on Redact. The picture opens with the tools on the left.
4. Under Find on the picture, click Faces to cover every face Koi finds, or Text to cover every line of words.
5. Or drag on the picture to cover a part yourself. Click a box to move or resize it, and press Delete to take it out.
6. Pick a Style: Solid (in a colour you pick), Blur or Pixelate.
7. Click Save redacted copy. “Photo redacted.jpg” lands beside the original.

• Faces and Text use Apple's Vision, on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded, which matters when the picture is the thing you're hiding.
• Every box shows in the Areas list, so you can check them before saving.
• If nothing is found, Koi says No faces found or No words found. Draw the box yourself.
• The original is never touched.

A video works too. Drag it with Shift held, drop it on More, and click Redact to hide parts under black or a blur for the whole video. The steps for every wedge are in how to use the Shift wheel.

The most common job: a screenshot of a group chat, a support thread or an email, where the words matter but the names and photos don't. In Koi:

1. Drag the screenshot with Shift held and drop it on Redact.
2. Click Faces to cover the profile pictures.
3. Drag a box over each name and each email address. Don't use Text here, because it would cover the whole conversation too.
4. Pick Solid and a colour that matches the app, so it reads as hidden, not broken.
5. Check the Areas list, then Save redacted copy, and share the copy.

With Preview, it's the same idea: a filled rectangle over each name, on a duplicate. It takes longer only because nothing is found for you.

Screenshot apps do this too. CleanShot X lists Blur and Pixelate among its annotation tools, from $35 once, and Shottr hides parts behind a pixelated “curtain” and can be used for free.

• Pixelated text can sometimes be read back. Tools like Depix rebuild words from pixelated screenshots. For a password, a card number or an address, use a solid box.
• A light blur on a face can still be recognised by people who know it. Make it strong, or use a solid box.
• Check reflections, name badges, screens in the background and tabs in a browser screenshot. Find Text helps, but read the picture yourself before you post it.
• The photo may also carry its location. Hiding a face and leaving the GPS in the file defeats the point.
• Covering a PDF with a box doesn't remove its text underneath. For a PDF, use Preview's Redact tool, which deletes the text.

Depix is a public proof of concept. To take the location out as well, see how to remove location and EXIF data from a photo.

• One line of text in a screenshot: a filled shape in Preview is free and safe.
• One face, on a Mac with Apple Intelligence: try Clean Up in Photos.
• A crowd, a page of names, or you do this every week: Koi's Redact, which finds them for you. The same wheel annotates screenshots and puts them on a background.

Redact is part of the Shift wheel, on every plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. See the plans.