As you know, even 10% is almost enough to render the blur unreadable. To compare blur levels, I compiled this shot below. See below for examples of the various levels of blur intensity.

The default setting is normally enough to render the text unreadable but still discernable at one point. You can play with the intensity level by clicking on the region you selected and hitting the down arrow on the toolbar, as shown above. The default for both Smooth and Pixelate Blur is 25%. Now draw a box around the area of the screenshot that you want to blur out. Keeping things simple, I’m going to click the down arrow and use a smooth filter with a 25% intensity. Both work equally well it just depends on the look you’re after. Now that we have a screenshot to work with, you can decide if you want to blur using the Smooth filter or the Pixelate feature from the Tools tab.

Note: The below screenshot is small on purpose because it’s just an example of a possible screenshot choice it’s not important. As an example, I’ve pulled an Amazon order confirmation we’re going to block out the address from. Maybe it’s personal information you don’t want to share with the world. To start, you need to have a screenshot that has text you want to blur out. The same can be said for YouTube videos, but adding blur to videos requires an entirely different program. Since we’re probably not running an intelligence agency, blacking out sections of a screenshot with a big black box doesn’t look attractive. We redacted the text to mask sensitive data on the right, I used a blur filter. Blur also doesn’t draw attention away from the important part of a screenshot. Put simply, blurring out text is better than the alternative – redaction. Note: This article was written using an older version of SnagIt Editor, but the software still has the Blur function.

Snagit screen capture tutorial