Pixelate a face (mosaic censor)
The tool below finds faces on your device and covers them with the classic mosaic — squared blocks, TV-news style. Nothing is uploaded anywhere; the pixelation happens in your browser and works even offline.
Pixelation is the most legible redaction: viewers instantly understand something was hidden deliberately, which is exactly why broadcasters use it. If you’d rather the edit be subtle, use the blur preset instead — same engine, softer look.
Preset: pixelate (mosaic). Strength sets how coarse the blocks are.
Drop a photo here — or click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V
JPG · PNG · WebP — faces found and hidden on your device, never uploaded
How it works
- Open this page — the tool is already set up for “Pixelate a face (mosaic censor)”.
- Drop your photo in, click to browse, or paste it with Ctrl+V.
- Faces are detected on your device; drag boxes over anything else to hide.
- Check the preview (hold “compare”), then download the flattened, metadata-free copy.
Block size is the whole game
A mosaic hides information in proportion to how few blocks the face spans. Eight blocks across a face is anonymous; forty is a light disguise a determined person can see through. This tool sizes blocks relative to each box — a large face automatically gets large blocks — so the default strength lands around 8–10 blocks across a face regardless of photo resolution. The strength slider moves that up or down.
One honest caveat that most tools skip: mosaic pixelation of text (documents, passwords, addresses) can often be reversed with tools like Depix and Unredacter, because text has a small, known alphabet rendered in a predictable font. Faces don’t have that structure, so a coarse mosaic on a face is far safer than the same mosaic on a password. For text, use the black-box preset.
Pixelate anything, not just faces
After the automatic face pass, drag boxes over anything else — logos, tattoos, a name tag, a stranger in the background. Each box can carry its own effect: select a box, then pick blur, mosaic, black box or emoji for just that box.
Tips that save a re-edit
- For a face filling most of the frame, push strength to 8–10 so blocks stay big relative to the face.
- Mosaic edges are sharp by design. If the square look clashes with the photo, the blur effect reads more naturally.
- Never mosaic text you truly need hidden — black-box it. Mosaic on text is partially reversible.
- Check the thumbnail small, too: a mosaic that hides a face at full size hides it even better zoomed out.
Before you post: zoom in and check every face, plate and label yourself. Auto-detection is a head start, not a guarantee — a missed face in a shared photo can’t be un-shared.
Frequently asked questions
Pixelate or blur — which hides a face better?
Implemented properly, both destroy the detail: this tool’s blur and mosaic are each a downsample that throws pixels away. Pick by look — mosaic is an obvious, deliberate censor; blur is softer and less prominent. For the strongest possible statement (and zero residual information) use the solid black box.
Why did the mosaic blocks come out tiny?
Blocks scale with the box, so a small box gets small blocks. If you drew a manual box much larger than the thing you’re hiding, the blocks grow with it. Raise the strength slider to coarsen any box.
Can pixelation be reversed?
For faces at this tool’s default settings, no — the averaged blocks simply don’t contain the original pixels anymore. For pixelated text the answer is sometimes yes (see Depix/Unredacter), which is why the screenshot preset here defaults to solid black instead.