How to Use Preview to Censor Screenshots on a Mac
It’s not uncommon to run into the dilemma of needing to share a photo or screenshot containing sensitive information you don’t want other people to see. There are many third-party apps and all kinds of websites you could possibly use to hide parts of the photo.
Thanks to the built-in Preview app on your Mac, you don’t need to go through the hassle of downloading apps or uploading sensitive photos to websites. Instead, you’re able to rely on the two useful techniques we’re about to discuss.
What Is Preview in macOS?
As stated earlier, Preview is the native image viewer in macOS. It can open and edit images or PDFs via Finder. You can use Preview to view, crop, resize, rename, rotate, and annotate images and PDFs.
While it’s good enough for viewing images, you would probably be better offviewing PDFs using other Preview alternatives.
Censor Screenshots in Preview With Shapes
This may come as a surprise, but using Shapes is a pretty neat way to hide things in your images. Here’s what you need to do:
Doing this will censor your image effectively, but it’s a bit unsightly. If you want it to blend into the background, use the Fill Color tool by following these steps:\
If you notice that your shape has a border that’s a different color from the rest of the shape, click on theBorder Colortool from the toolbar and select the one with thered diagonal lineto turn off the borders.
That should effectively mask anything that you need to hide. you’re able to use a similar method tocensor images on an iPhone using Markup.
Censor Screenshots in Preview With the Draw Tool
The method for censoring images with the Draw tool is quite identical to using shapes. However, the Draw tool is better for masking things in a more customizable way since it can be used like a pen. If, for instance, you need to hide your signature from a document, you could mask it and blend it away with the Draw tool.
So, follow the simple instructions below:
If you want to blend this into the background, clickBorder Color>Show Colorsand use the eyedropper tool, just as we explained in the previous section.
Mask Sensitive Information in Your Screenshots With Preview
If you’re sharing your screenshots anywhere public, like social media, it’s probably a good idea to censor it with these tips. You can avoid privacy concerns by hiding sensitive information from prying eyes.
Luckily, Preview makes this easy to do, and you don’t even need to download it from the internet—it comes with your Mac. Also, remember that you could always blend your masks into the background with the Color tool.
Looking for a more powerful image viewer for your Mac? These options each offer unique features.
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