Blur a license plate in a photo

How to hide a number plate in a picture

1. 1

   Open the car photo

   Drop the photo onto the box above, or choose it from your phone’s library or your computer.

2. 2

   Box the plate

   The tool opens on Part of the photo. Drag a box over the plate, a little larger than the plate itself. Add box adds another for a second car.

3. 3

   Pick the cover

   Use Pixelate with a large Block size, or select the box and set Look for this area to Black for a solid cover.

4. 4

   Export for the advert

   Press Export photo. JPEG at the default quality suits listing sites; choose 2048 px under Size if the site prefers smaller uploads.

Why sellers hide their registration

A registration is the key to a car’s public records. In the UK, anyone with a plate can look up the make, colour, tax and MOT history; in other countries, history reports are a few clicks away. That is useful to a buyer who is serious, but an advert is seen by everyone.

The bigger worry is cloning: criminals copy the plate of a car with the same make, model and colour onto a stolen or uninsured vehicle, and the fines and penalty notices go to you. A clear photo in a public advert is an easy source. Covering the plate removes that risk without making the car look any worse.

Serious buyers will ask for the registration to run their own checks, and you can give it to them privately once you have spoken.

Blur, pixelate or black out the plate

Plates are a worst case for blurring: large, high-contrast characters from a small set, often in a known typeface. A gentle blur that hides a face can leave a plate readable to someone who knows the format. Pixelate with a Block size large enough that each character becomes one or two blocks, or use Black for a solid cover.

Many listing sites look more polished with a neat cover than a smeared one. A black box the size of the plate looks deliberate and tidy; a pixelated plate looks familiar from TV. Either is better than a light blur.

Several photos, several angles

A listing usually has front, back and three-quarter views, and the plate is visible in most of them. Open each photo in turn: after Download photo, press New photo and the editor is ready for the next. Check reflections too, since a plate can appear in a shop window, a garage door or the paintwork of a neighbouring car.

Look beyond the plate. Parking permits, a dealer’s sticker with your town, a house number behind the car or a colleague’s face in the background can all be covered with an extra box or a brush stroke before you save.

Location data in car photos

Phone cameras often record where a photo was taken, and a car photographed on your drive gives away your address. The editor tells you when the original holds a location, and the saved copy is written fresh from the pixels: it carries no GPS position, camera model or date. That is worth doing even when you leave the plate visible.

Plates in dashcam and video clips

For moving footage, the same box can follow a car through a clip with automatic tracking. The video license plate guide covers dashcam and phone videos.