How to blur an image
- Drop in one or more images, or paste one from the clipboard.
- Move the Blur slider. To blur only part of the picture, drag a box over it on the preview. Tick Blur around the boxes instead to keep the boxes sharp and blur the background.
- Download the blurred image, or all of them together as a zip.
Uses for a blurred image
A blurred photo keeps the colours and mood of the original but loses the detail that competes with whatever sits on top of it.
- Slide backgrounds. Text stays readable on a blurred photo of the venue or product.
- Wallpapers. A soft wallpaper doesn’t fight with icons on a phone or desktop.
- Text overlays. Quotes, banners and social posts often use a blurred photo behind the words.
- Placeholders. A small, heavily blurred copy of a photo can stand in on a web page while the full image loads. Shrink it with resize image first so the file is tiny.
Choosing a setting
These are rough starting points, since every photo is different:
| Blur | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | Gentle softening, details still visible |
| 15 to 40 | Background blur, shapes recognisable but not sharp |
| 50 to 100 | Mostly soft colour, good behind text |
If white text still struggles to stand out, lower the brightness a little with brightness and contrast. Blurred images have very little fine detail, so they shrink well with compress image.