How to blur a license plate in a photo
Hide a car's number plate before posting a photo or a sale listing. Which style to use, why light blur isn't enough, and what else in the shot can identify you.
Updated · 2 min read
Do it now: free, in your browser, nothing uploaded.
Open Blur imageThe short answer
Drag a box over the plate and use a solid box or a strong pixelate. A plate is short text in a standard font, which is exactly the kind of text that light blur can fail to hide. Do it in Blur image: it runs in your browser and exports a clean copy of the photo.
People blur plates for many reasons: posting a car for sale, sharing a dashcam still, showing off a new car, or posting street photos with other people's vehicles in them. In every case the plate links the photo to a registered owner, so it's worth a few seconds.
Blur a plate step by step
- Open Blur image and drop the photo in, or pick it from your phone's gallery.
- Number plates aren't detected automatically, so drag a box over each plate by hand. Make the box a little bigger than the plate itself.
- Choose Solid for certainty, or Pixelate at high strength if you want it to look less heavy. The editor warns you if blur or pixelation sits over readable text.
- Check for a second plate: cars usually have one at the front and one at the back, and other vehicles may appear in the background or in reflections.
- Download. The new photo has no hidden location data.
Faces in the same photo are detected automatically. Use Blur face in photo if there are people in the shot too.
Which style works best on a plate
| Style | On a number plate |
|---|---|
| Solid | Safest. Nothing left to guess from. |
| Pixelate, high strength | Looks natural; keep the blocks large. |
| Blur, light | Avoid. Characters can stay readable or guessable. |
If you're not sure, read Can blurred text be unblurred?. The short version: for short text, a solid box is the only style that can't be reversed.
Other details that give a car away
- Parking permits, dealer stickers and toll tags on the windscreen.
- Your house number, street sign or driveway if the car is parked at home. See How to blur an address in a photo.
- Documents on the dashboard or seats, such as service records or parking tickets.
- GPS coordinates stored in the photo file, which the exported copy leaves out.
For a sale listing, buyers may later need the registration details to check the vehicle's history. Share those privately with a serious buyer rather than in the public photos.
Questions
Does Blur Document find license plates automatically?
No. Faces, QR codes and text such as numbers and emails are found automatically, but you draw a box over number plates yourself. It takes a few seconds.
Is it enough to blur a plate in a video?
Blur Document works on photos, screenshots and PDFs, not video. For a dashcam clip, take a still frame and blur that, or use a video editor.