🟪 Image Pixelate Tool
Upload an image and adjust the block size to apply a mosaic/pixelate effect over the whole image — handy for quickly censoring a face or sensitive text before downloading.
Two draws make the mosaic
Everything happens on canvases inside this page - the picture is never uploaded. It is shrunk once with smoothing turned on, so each tiny pixel is the average of the block beneath it, then blown back up to full size with smoothing turned off, which paints those averages as hard-edged squares:
grid width = round(image width / block)
grid height = round(image height / block)A 1200×800 image at block 12 is reduced to a 100×67 grid - 6,700 coloured squares - and stretched back to 1200×800. Because the grid is rounded to whole pixels, the squares land at about 12.05 px rather than exactly 12 when the dimensions do not divide evenly.
Points to watch
- The effect covers the whole picture. There is no region selector, so to obscure one face crop that area out first, pixelate it, and paste it back in an image editor.
- Block size is capped at 2 to 100 px and is absolute, not relative - block 20 wipes out a 400 px thumbnail and barely marks a 6000 px photo.
- The download is a full-resolution PNG, the same width and height as the original, with EXIF dropped by the canvas.
Frequently asked questions
How do I pixelate just a face in a photo?
This tool works on the entire image, so crop the face out with the Image Cropper, pixelate that crop here, then layer it back over the original in any editor that handles layers.
Can pixelated text be read again?
Often, yes. Researchers have recovered pixelated words by rendering candidate text in the same font, pixelating it the same way and matching the squares. Never use a mosaic to hide passwords, card numbers or names.
What block size should I use?
Aim for roughly a tenth of the feature you want gone. A face 200 px across needs about 20; text 30 px tall needs at least 15 before the letter shapes stop showing through.