Pixelated and blurry are two different things, though they may appear similar. Blur happens when the image appears to be out of focus, whereas pixilation happens when the pixels that make up the image are stretched to an extent that they become visible to the naked eyes. Pixilation creates a jagged effect in the image as compared to blur, which creates a soft grainy effect.
How to Blur or Pixelate an Image on Windows 11/10
In one of our previous posts, we’ve covered the best free online tools that let you blur or pixelate images. In this post, we will show you how to blur or pixelate an image on Windows 11/10 using Windows built-in apps and some third-party image editing software for PC. Here’s the list of tools we are going to cover in this article: Let us have a look at how these tools can help in blurring or pixelating part of an image, or the entire image.
1] Microsoft Paint
MS Paint is Microsoft’s classic image editing software that comes pre-installed in all versions of Windows. It offers some basic image editing functions, such as crop, resize, flip, rotate, and annotate. Though it doesn’t have a dedicated blur or pixelate feature, if you want to blur an image without downloading a specialized tool, you can use a simple trick to create a pixelate effect in images using MS Paint. Here’s the trick: Keep in mind that this is just a trick and not a permanent solution to blur images. If you want a proper blur effect, move to the next option.
2] Microsoft Word/PowerPoint
Both Microsoft Word and PowerPoint feature a Blur artistic effect that can be applied to the images used in Word or PowerPoint. If you occasionally need to blur an entire image, you can use either of these software, which are part of the Microsoft Office suite that you might already be having on your Windows 11/10 PC. Here’s how you can blur images using Microsoft Word or PowerPoint: You can also create this blur effect in Microsoft Word/PowerPoint using the Picture Correction options as explained below: Note: The blur effect works on the entire image in MS Word/PowerPoint. In case you want to blur only a specific part, you can use MS Paint or download one of these image editing tools we are going to suggest next. Also Read:
How to blur background image of pictures in PowerPointHow to make Font blurry in Microsoft Word.
3] GIMP
GIMP is a powerful open-source image editing software available for Windows 11/10 both. It offers a wide variety of tools that lets you edit images with ease. You can read GIMP’s complete review here. Interestingly, you can use more than 1 tool in GIMP to create a blur effect. Let’s see how to blur or pixelate an image in Windows 11/10 using GIMP. Once the image is opened, you can use one of the following three methods to create the blur or pixelate effect:
A] Blur part of the image using the Blur tool
B] Blur part of the image using the Smudge tool
C] Blur/ Pixelate an entire image using the Blur filters
The above 2 methods will help you blur a specific part of the image in GIMP. If you want to blur the entire image, you can use the Blur filters. GIMP offers more than one blur filters (such as Focus Blur, Gaussian Blur, Lens Blur, Median Blur, etc.) that help in creating different blur effects on the given image. It also offers a Pixelize feature that’s part of its Blur effects. To apply a blur effect, select Filters > Blur > Focus Blur. To apply the Pixelate effect, select Filters > Blur > Pixelize. Note: To pixelate a specific part of the image, select that part using the selection tool and then apply the Pixelize effect. You may also adjust the filter settings to make things more blurry or pixelated, as per your requirement.
4] Paint.NET
Paint.NET is yet another free image editing software that you may install to blur or pixelate an image on Windows 11/10. It offers a wide range of powerful tools and features that makes it comparable to some premium photo editors, such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel PaintShop Pro. Read more about Paint.NET here. Let us now see how the Blur and Pixelate features work in Paint.NET. Now use one of the following methods to create the blur or pixelate effect:
A] Blur an image using Paint.NET
B] Pixelate an image using Paint.NET
Note: To apply the blur/pixelate effect to a specific area in the image, select the area using the selection tool listed in the toolbar on the left side of the Paint.NET window, and then apply the effect.
5] Photoshop Express
Last on the list is the Photoshop Express app for Windows 11/10. This app is a simpler version of the Adobe Photoshop app. The app was primarily designed for mobile photography. Later, Adobe released a stable version of it for Windows 11/10. Photoshop Express can be used to do basic editing with images. Here’s how you can use the app to blur images: Photoshop Express will blur the entire image. If you need to blur a specific part or instead pixelate the image, use other tools discussed in this post. This sums up the list of apps that can be used to blur or pixelate an image on Windows 11/10 PC. Hope you find these apps useful. Do share your feedback or queries in the comments section below.
How do I pixelate an image in Windows 11?
You can pixelate an image in Windows 11/10 using MS Paint, which is a native Windows app. Launch the Paint app and open your image in it. Then select the area which you want to pixelate using the selection tool. Now take your mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner of the selection, click and hold, and drag the selection inwards to reduce its size. Leave it for a moment but do not deselect. Then move the selection outwards to bring it back to its normal size. This will create a pixelated effect in the selected area.
How do I blur part of a picture in Windows 11/10?
To blur a picture, you can open it in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and apply the Blur Artistic effect on the picture. If you want more control over blur, download GIMP or Paint.NET. Both of these apps are free and can be used to apply the blur or pixelate effect over part of an image or the entire image. You can follow the instructions described in this post to blur the picture as per your requirement. Read Next: Best free Batch Photo Editor software for Windows 11/10.
