How faces are found
The face finder, a 230 KB model, looks for face-shaped regions and puts a box around each one. It does not identify anyone. It has no idea who a person is, it only knows that a region looks like a face. Nothing about the faces is stored or sent anywhere.
The Sensitivity slider decides how readily it marks a region. Raise it to catch small or distant faces; lower it if it starts boxing things that are not faces, such as a round sign or a pattern.
Changing Sensitivity is quick, so on a crowd photo try a couple of settings and watch how the number of boxes changes.
Choosing which faces to hide
Every found face gets a box. Click a box to turn it off, for example to leave your own face or a speaker on stage visible. Drag on the photo to add a box anywhere the detector missed a face. You can also use an added box to hide something that is not a face, like a name badge or a car's number plate.
Before you share, check every face in the photo yourself. Small faces in the background, faces in profile, and faces partly covered by hands, hats or masks are the ones most likely to be missed.
Blur, pixelate or solid block
There are three styles, and they differ in how much they hide.
Judge the result at the size people will see it. If eyes, nose and mouth still read as features in a small thumbnail, raise the strength or switch to a solid block.
- Blur softens each face by the strength you set. At low strength, people who know the person may still recognize them, so go higher when it matters.
- Pixelate turns the face into large blocks. Pixelate faces has its own page with more on block size.
- Solid block covers the face completely with a flat shape. It is the most certain way to hide a face.
What the export contains
The hiding is applied to the exported pixels and cannot be reversed from the file. The original pixels under each box are not in it. Exports are also re-encoded from the canvas, so location and camera details stored in the original photo are not carried over. Your untouched original stays wherever you opened it from.
If the photo also shows a house number, a school logo or a screen with names on it, add boxes for those too before you export.
What it will not do
- Small, turned or covered faces can be missed. Check every face before you share.
- It never identifies anyone; it only finds face-shaped regions.
- A light blur may still let people who know someone recognize them; use a stronger blur or a solid block when it matters.
- Other identifying details, such as tattoos, clothing or surroundings, are not hidden unless you add boxes for them.
Devices and downloads
The face finder is a 230 KB download, MIT licensed. The editor shows its size and starts it after one press of the main button, then keeps it cached. It runs in a background worker, on WebGPU when your browser offers it and on WebAssembly otherwise; at this size it takes a fraction of a second even on WebAssembly. The blur itself is ordinary image arithmetic.
| Model | Download | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Face finder | 230 KB | MIT |
On-device AI: A small neural network that runs on this device after a one-time download. See what is stored on this device.
Step by step
- Open the photo. Drop, paste or choose the picture with faces to hide.
- Review the boxes. Adjust Sensitivity, click boxes to turn them off, and drag to add missed faces.
- Pick a style. Choose blur, pixelate or solid block and set its strength.
- Check every face and export. Look over the whole photo, then save the hidden version.
Questions about blur faces
Does the face blur tool recognize who is in my photo?
No. It finds regions that look like faces and nothing more. It has no way to tell who anyone is.
Can someone remove the blur from my exported photo?
Not from the file. The blur is applied to the exported pixels, and the original pixels under each box are not included.
What should I do if a face was not detected?
Drag on the photo to draw a box over it, or raise Sensitivity. Always check each face yourself before sharing.
Can I leave one person's face visible and blur the rest?
Yes. Click that person's box to turn it off, and only the remaining boxes are blurred.