Guide
How to Redact a Screenshot Before Sharing It
Screenshots often contain more than you intend to share — account numbers, email addresses, private messages, or personal details visible in the background. Before sending or posting a screenshot, it's worth taking 30 seconds to hide anything sensitive.
When should you redact a screenshot?
- You're sharing a screenshot with a support team and it contains your account number or email
- You want to post a screenshot publicly but there are private messages visible
- You're writing a tutorial or guide and need to hide internal URLs or credentials
- You're attaching a screenshot to a document or report for external readers
- You received a screenshot and want to forward only part of it
Blur vs. redact — what's the difference?
Blur applies a heavy gaussian blur over an area. The general shape of the content is still visible, but the text or details are unreadable. This looks clean and is good for professional screenshots where you want it to be obvious something was hidden intentionally.
Redact covers the area with a solid black rectangle — the same style used in legal and government documents. This is more thorough and leaves no visual trace of the underlying content.
Important: Both methods work well for hiding text from casual viewers. However, if you need to protect genuinely sensitive data (legal, medical, financial), use solid redaction rather than blur — blur can theoretically be partially reversed on very high-resolution images.
How to redact a screenshot with TidyPatch
Keyboard shortcuts
Limitations
- Only rectangular zones are supported — you cannot draw freehand shapes
- The tool does not auto-detect faces or text; you draw the zones yourself
- Output is always PNG regardless of the input format