A photo carries more than what is in the frame. It carries the faces of people who did not agree to be posted, the GPS coordinates of where it was taken, and nothing at all to stop someone else re-uploading it as their own. Each of those is a separate problem with a separate fix, and all three take under a minute.
This checklist is for anyone publishing images: property listings, event recaps, documentation screenshots, product photos, classroom updates, incident reports.
Key takeaways
- Blur or pixelate faces of anyone who has not consented, especially children and bystanders. Do it on the published copy, not the original.
- A watermark does not prevent copying, but it makes misattribution obvious and gives you something to point at.
- Camera metadata (EXIF) can include GPS location, the exact time, and your camera's serial number. Most tools that edit an image strip it; check that yours does.
- For documents, the equivalent steps are a text watermark on the PDF and, where needed, a password.
Step 1: Blur faces that are not yours to publish
The Blur Face tool detects faces automatically and applies an adjustable blur. Upload the photo, check that every face you want hidden has been found, pick a blur strength and download.
A few things to know about how the detection works, so you can predict when it needs help:
- It is tuned for front-facing faces. Profiles, faces turned more than about 45° and faces smaller than roughly 30 pixels across may be missed.
- Hats, sunglasses and masks reduce detection. A face in a motorcycle helmet is usually not found.
- Crowd shots: expect to catch most faces, not all. Zoom in on the result and check the edges of the frame.
If a face is missed, the honest options are to crop it out, cover it with a solid shape in any image editor, or not publish that photo. Do not rely on a light blur; a face blurred at low strength can still be recognised by people who know the person. Use a strength that leaves no facial features at all.
Why blur and not just a small crop? Because the rest of the photo is usually the point. A blurred bystander in a street scene keeps the scene.
Step 2: Decide what a watermark is for
Watermarks do three different jobs. Decide which one you need, because they call for different placements.
- Attribution. "Photo: Your Name" small in a corner. Stops accidental misattribution; easily cropped by anyone determined.
- Deterrence. A semi-transparent logo or text repeated across the whole image. Cropping does not remove it and cloning it out takes real effort.
- Status marking. "DRAFT", "SAMPLE", "NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION" diagonally across the image. Communicates to honest recipients; this is about expectation, not protection.
The Image Watermark tool handles all three. It takes either text or a logo image, and lets you set opacity, rotation, position, and a repeating grid for the deterrence case.
Settings that work in practice:
- Opacity 25–40% for repeated watermarks. Visible enough to be obvious, light enough that the image is still usable for its purpose.
- Rotate text watermarks about 30°. Horizontal text blends into image content; a diagonal does not.
- For a corner mark, use the bottom right and leave a margin. Social platforms crop edges unpredictably.
- Use a logo with a transparent background (PNG or WebP). A white box around a logo looks like a mistake.
Step 3: Strip the metadata
Every photo from a phone or camera carries an EXIF block. Depending on the device, it can include:
- GPS latitude and longitude, often to within a few metres
- Date and time, to the second
- Camera make, model and serial number
- Software used to edit it
- Sometimes an embedded thumbnail of the original, uncropped image
That last one matters: you can crop someone out of a photo and still ship them inside the thumbnail.
You can see exactly what a file carries with the File Metadata Analyzer. Drop a photo in and read the EXIF section. If there is a GPS entry, that photo should not be published as-is.
Processing the image through the blur, watermark, compress or resize tools produces a fresh file without the original metadata. If you edit in another application, re-check the output with the metadata analyzer; some editors preserve EXIF by default.
Step 4: Do the same for documents
PDFs have their own version of each problem.
- Faces in scanned documents (ID cards, staff photos in a report): convert the page to an image with PDF to Image, blur it, and rebuild the page with Image to PDF. Redaction by drawing a black box in a PDF editor does not remove the underlying content unless the editor specifically supports redaction.
- Status and ownership: the PDF Watermark tool adds diagonal or horizontal text ("CONFIDENTIAL", a client name, a date) across every page, with opacity and size controls. Watermarking a proposal with the recipient's name is a quiet but effective way to discourage forwarding.
- Access control: the PDF Password tool encrypts the file so it cannot be opened without the password. Send the password through a different channel than the file.
A one-minute pre-publish routine
- Open the photo in the Blur Face tool. Blur everyone who is not the subject. Download.
- Open the result in the Watermark tool if the image has value worth attributing. Download.
- Resize to the size you actually need. A 6,000-pixel-wide original is both slow to load and a gift to anyone who wants to reprint it.
- Drop the final file in the File Metadata Analyzer. Confirm there is no GPS entry.
- Publish.
The original stays on your device, metadata and all. Only the processed copy leaves.
Frequently asked questions
Does blurring a face make a photo legally safe to publish?
It removes the most direct identifier, which is what most privacy policies and many regulations care about, but it is not a substitute for consent where consent is required. Tattoos, uniforms, name badges and context can still identify someone. When in doubt, ask or do not publish.
Can a watermark be removed?
A corner watermark can be cropped. A repeated, semi-transparent watermark can be removed with effort and skill, and the result usually shows traces. No watermark makes an image uncopyable; the goal is to make misuse obvious and inconvenient.
Does uploading a photo to these tools keep a copy?
The file is processed and then deleted automatically. The tools do not retain uploads. Even so, the standard advice applies to any online tool: process the copy you intend to publish, not the only copy of something sensitive.
Which image formats are supported?
JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, TIFF and AVIF, up to 20 MB per image.