Redact Screenshots and Images Properly
Screenshots are the fastest way to leak something by accident: an email address in a corner, a token in a URL bar, a name in a notification. This tool blacks out image regions with solid fills that destroy the underlying pixels — not blur, which researchers have repeatedly reversed. It runs entirely in your browser, and the image never leaves your device.
The actual tool runs in our ad-free secure workspace — nothing on this page processes your file.
Open Redact a Document →What this tool does
- Redacts regions of screenshots and photos with solid fills that irreversibly replace the pixels underneath.
- Refuses the false comfort of blur and pixelation, which can often be reversed or brute-forced back to readable text.
- Strips image metadata (EXIF and friends) on export, so the cleaned screenshot does not leak through its file properties.
- Zooms to pixel level so you can redact small text — status bars, URL parameters, badge numbers — precisely.
- Exports a flattened copy, leaving your original untouched.
Your privacy on this tool
Stays on your device
- The image is loaded, edited, and exported entirely within your browser.
- Redacted regions are destroyed on your device — the sensitive pixels never travel anywhere.
- No copy of the original or redacted image is transmitted, stored, or logged by us.
Reaches our server: nothing
This tool makes no upload. Your content is processed entirely in your browser.
How to use it
- Open the tool at /app/redact-document and load your screenshot or photo.
- Zoom in and drag solid-fill boxes over everything sensitive — names, emails, tokens, faces, addresses.
- Sweep the whole frame, especially edges: taskbars, browser tabs, and notification areas are classic leak spots.
- Export the flattened, metadata-stripped copy.
- Share the exported file only — the original with the sensitive pixels stays yours.
Common uses
- Sharing a bug report screenshot without exposing your account email, API keys, or internal URLs.
- Posting an error message to Stack Overflow or a forum with hostnames and tokens blacked out.
- Sharing a funny text exchange with names, numbers, and avatars removed.
- Publishing app screenshots in documentation with real customer data redacted.
- Posting proof of a conversation or transaction while hiding the other party's identity.
- Sending a support ticket screenshot that includes your dashboard but not your billing details.
Supported formats
- PNG
- JPEG
- WebP
- Also accepts PDF pages
Runs in any modern browser with the Canvas API, on desktop and mobile alike.
Limitations & security notes
Limitations
- Redaction only covers what you mark — the tool cannot spot the email address you missed in the corner. Zoom out and sweep the full frame before exporting.
- Cropping is not redaction either: some formats and platforms retain the uncropped original in previews or edit history. Export from this tool produces a flat file without such remnants, but be wary of cropping elsewhere.
- Very low-contrast leaks (faint watermarks, reflections in glasses) are easy to miss on a small screen — zoom in.
- If the screenshot was already shared unredacted anywhere, redacting a new copy does not unshare the old one.
- SecretPNG is in beta and has not been independently audited.
Security notes
- Blur and pixelation are reversible more often than people think — deblurring models and brute-force comparison of pixelated text have both been demonstrated publicly. Solid fills are the only safe choice, which is why they are the only choice offered.
- Swirl or 'twirl' distortions are worse than blur — a famously unswirled face led to a real-world arrest. Never rely on distortion to hide identity.
- Metadata stripping on export matters: a screenshot's file properties can reveal device, time, and software even when the pixels are clean.
- Check for information that identifies indirectly: window titles, timestamps, unread counts, and distinctive UI themes can all fingerprint you.
- When sharing images of other people, redact their identifying details by default — consent to a private conversation is not consent to publication.
Frequently asked questions
- Why can't I just blur the sensitive part?
- Because blur is a transformation, not a deletion — enough of the original signal survives that specialized tools can often reconstruct it, especially for text with known fonts and sizes. Pixelation is even more vulnerable: each block's color still depends on the hidden characters, and attackers can brute-force candidate strings until the blocks match. A solid fill leaves nothing to recover.
- Is covering text with a black box in a photo editor the same thing?
- In a flat image editor that merges layers on export, yes — the pixels are replaced. The dangerous cases are editors that keep layers or edit history (the 'box' can be deleted later) and documents where the box floats above intact text. This tool always exports flattened pixels and validates that approach, so there is no layer to peel back.
- Does the exported image keep my screenshot's metadata?
- No — metadata is stripped as part of export. Screenshots can carry device model, OS details, and timestamps in their file properties, and a redacted image that still says where and when it was made undermines the redaction.
- What should I check before sharing a redacted screenshot?
- Sweep the full frame at zoom: browser tabs and URL bars, system trays and notification badges, window titles, reflections, and anything cut off at the edges. Then confirm every mark is a solid fill, not something translucent. The most common failure is not weak redaction — it is the leak nobody marked.
- Can I redact a multi-page PDF here too?
- Yes — this tool handles PDFs as well, with text search to find every occurrence of a term across pages. If your starting point is a document rather than an image, see our PDF redaction page for the workflow built around that case.
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-14Open Redact a Document
SecretPNG is in beta and has not been independently audited. Security status.