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I often seen screen shots with areas of sensitive information smeared/blurred to make it unintelligible.

How can I do that image-smearing simply and inexpensively as a Mac user?

The words "simply" and "inexpensively" mean not Photoshop, GIMP, or similar high-end graphics manipulation apps. Normally I just use Preview.app, and sometimes Grab.app or OmniGraffle for my screen shots. I'm looking for something MacPaint-simple.

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  • Can't you hide text with OmniGraffle?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 22:33
  • @FranckDernoncourt In OmniGraffle I can draw an opaque box over a sensitive area, or a white box on a white background to block the view. But there is no smearing or blurring tool. OmniGraffle is a drawing/vector app, no paint/bitmap editing.
    – Basil Bourque
    Commented Jun 14, 2014 at 2:20
  • oh OK I wasn't sure whether drawing an opaque box counted as smearing. I would be wary regarding non-opaque solutions as it's tough to be sure it cannot be unblurred, e.g. nbcnews.com/id/21190969/ns/world_news-europe/t/…
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jun 14, 2014 at 2:23
  • Valid point about security, but we are not talking Top Secret data in my cases. A side-benefit: blurring helps avoid distraction with the user so they focus on the important parts while still keeping a somewhat natural look of the screen.
    – Basil Bourque
    Commented Jun 14, 2014 at 2:33
  • Yep sure I understand the use, just making sure you (and future readers) know the potential risks :)
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jun 14, 2014 at 2:35

1 Answer 1

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You can do this for free with Skitch.

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  • Bonus points for animated demo. Next I'll have to ask what software I can use to simply make an animated demo. :-)
    – Basil Bourque
    Commented Jun 17, 2014 at 13:13
  • 4
    @BasilBourque See Make a GIF video
    – Justin
    Commented Jun 17, 2014 at 21:16

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