Sometimes when we create screenshots, we might have to include some sensitive information that we don't want to share along with the portion of an image we do want to share. For example, when usernames or confidential information might be present on screen.
To blur a portion of a screen shot made with ShareX, right click the image in ShareX and choose edit image. Next, press B and click and drag the area you want to blur. You can also find the blur tool in the toolbar indicated by an icon with diagonal lines.
Let's explore our options a bit further.
If you often take screenshots where you must blur information, it is best to setup ShareX so that you can blur sensitive parts as you are taking the screenshots and possibly do any other edits in the process.
We can do this by going to after capture tasks in the ShareX interface and pressing "open in image editor", this makes it so that any screenshot we take will be opened in the ShareX image editor that we have direct access to the blur tool among some other basic image manipulation tools.
For example, we can create arrows and text boxes to explain to a viewer what to do or what certain things are.
If you don't want to use the blur tool too much as it might be a bit distracting, if you are also explaining things using text boxs you can be a bit smart about where you place these boxes and potentially cover some areas that are otherwise showing sensitive information.
If you are presenting information in an educational fashion, it is important not to blur too much information or anyone taking part in the education might feel that they are missing out on information. However, it is also important to protect any personal and sensitive information about yourself or any third party that might be at risk.
In some cases, if you are demonstrating how to use software that requires an account you might want to consider using a demo account so that you don't have to hide as much information compared to if you are using a personal account.
Other than that, you should possibly hide any names, addresses, contact information or other sensitive information such as social security numbers.
Also consider hiding passwords, account names or URL addresses that might be a target for account breach.
Also consider the audience. Is the information shared within a smaller community or closed group or is it publicly available information?
Any image manipulation software such as Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Krita or GIMP all have blur filters. In these applications you generally add a square shape on its own layer above any image you have below, and you add a blur filter to that layer.
You then have a square shape that will blur anything on a layer beneath it.
In this article we covered how to blur parts of a screenshot in ShareX. We can either do this after we have taken the screenshot by opening the image in the image editor from the ShareX menu or directly by opening the image editor as part of our workflow.
An alternative to using blur is to intelligently place any explainer text boxes above any sensitive information to hide it if that is something we use.
We can also use another tool such as Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Krita or GIMP. In these application we generally use a shape together with a filter on it's own layer to create the effect.
I hope this was helpful and thanks for your time.
