Pixelate pictures: This is how it works on the iPhone, online or with Paint

The perfect photo sometimes contains sensitive data such as license plates or the faces of strangers. There are various tools that you can use to blur exactly such data. We show you how to pixelate images on the iPhone, online and with Paint.

Why is pixelation important?

Before a photo ends up on the web, you should make sensitive data such as car number plates, foreign faces and private addresses unrecognizable. Especially in social networks like Facebook and Instagram it is important that you protect the right to your own picture. For example, if you upload a picture with strangers, they must have given their permission. Otherwise warnings or even court proceedings may threaten.

If, on the other hand, you pixelate the images, you are on the safe side. In just a few steps, you can censor pictures with foreign faces or make car license plates unrecognizable.

Pixelate pictures with the iPhone

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WhatsApp is also perfect for editing photos.

Image: © Adobe Stock/Aleksei 2019

With the iPhone you don’t have an integrated function to pixelate images, but it is possible in a roundabout way. You have WhatsApp installed? With Messenger you can blur images. And this is how it works:

1. Open WhatsApp and a chat.
2. Tap the plus icon.
3. Select “Camera” if you want to take a picture, otherwise tap “Photo & Video Library” if you want to send a photo from your archive.
4. Tap on the pencil in the top right corner and then tap on the “line with the mosaic pattern”.
5. Now swipe the pixel pen over the image section that you want to blur.
6. Confirm with “Done” and send your pixelated photo.

Pixelate photos: tools on the internet

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With the mosaic filter in Photopea, you can completely pixelate faces.

Image: © Screenshot / Photopea 2022

Blurring images works with the iPhone, but also with various free tools on the Internet. You don’t need to download an app or program to do this. With the tools Photopea does this directly in the browser.

How to pixelate images with Photopea:

1. Open the website of Photopea.
2. Either click “Open from computer” or click the “File” button and then “Open.”
3. Select the desired image with a double click.
4. Use the “Rectangle selection” in the menu on the left to mark the desired image section that you want to make unrecognizable.
5. Select the “Filter” button.
6. Click either “Blur > Gaussian Blur” or “Gerify > Mosaic”.
7. Select the degree of pixelation and confirm with “OK”.
8. Save your image by clicking the “File > Export As” button.
9. Select the desired image format and confirm with “Save”.

Tip: You can also use Photopea with your smartphone.

Blur images with Paint

If you use a Windows PC, you can even pixelate details with the pre-installed image editing software Paint. How it works:

1. Open Paint on your PC.
2. Under “File > Open” select the image that you want to pixelate.
3. Click on the “Selection” button and, holding down the left mouse button, mark the area that you want to make unrecognizable.
4. Reduce the image selection by holding down the left mouse button and dragging any corner of the section in the direction of the opposite corner. Your originally marked area is now white and the reduced section is in the respective corner.
5. Hold down the left mouse button and pull the reduced section back diagonally in the opposite direction to bring it back to its original size and completely cover the white area. Your image section should now be pixelated.
   Tip: The smaller you draw the image section, the coarser the pixelation will be when you later enlarge it.
6. Save your image under “File > Save As”.
7. Select the file format and confirm with “Save”.

Anonymize images without pixels

You want to share private pictures publicly, but don’t want to censor the private data with blur or mosaic filters? Then you can use emojis instead. Especially parents who exchange children’s pictures in WhatsApp or Facebook groups like to use emojis. With various apps or programs such as “Emoji Photo Sticker Maker Pro” allows you to place the emoji directly on the kid’s face to make the picture anonymous.

summary

1. Before private pictures with sensitive data end up on the Internet, you should pixelate them to a certain extent.
2. With WhatsApp you can pixelate pictures before you send them to friends and acquaintances.
3. There are various tools on the Internet, such as Photopea, with which you can make faces or license plates unrecognizable.
4. You can also use Microsoft’s Paint image editing software to blur faces.
5. If you don’t want to pixelate pictures, you can also put an emoji on them.