---
title: "How to Redact PII From Images"
description: "Omit redacts PII inside PNG, JPEG, TIFF and BMP files the same way it redacts documents: OCR reads the text, the same detector finds the PII, and the matching regions get blacked out in the image itself, entirely on your machine."
canonical_url: https://omitsys.com/blog/redact-images/
author: "Ranjan Singh"
date: 2026-08-17
updated: 2026-08-23
published: false
---

## In short

OCR reports where each word sits on the page, so a redaction box lands on that word's own coordinates rather than blurring a region or guessing at one. The formats covered are PNG, JPEG, TIFF and BMP, and an image is a first-class input rather than a side effect of another format's path. A redacted copy does not carry the original EXIF data, so GPS coordinates, device model and timestamp do not survive the re-encode.

Omit redacts [PII](/blog/what-is-pii/) inside image files the same way it redacts documents. OCR reads the text sitting inside the image, the same detection engine that scans a spreadsheet or a PDF runs against that text, and the regions that match get blacked out directly in the image. Nothing is uploaded anywhere; the whole pass runs on your machine.

It works on PNG, JPEG, TIFF and BMP files, and it is a first-class input to Omit Redact, not a side effect of some other format: drop an image in the same way you would a document, and a redacted copy comes out.

## How it works

How the boxes actually line up with the text. OCR does not just extract words, it also reports where on the page each word sits. When a detected span of PII falls inside a word OCR found, that word's own coordinates become the redaction box, so the black bar sits exactly over the text that was there, not a blur over the whole image or a guess at where the sensitive part might be.

## What this covers

The kinds of images this covers in practice: a screenshot of a chat or an email thread with a name or phone number visible, a photo of an ID card or a filled-in form, a scanned page from a paper file, a screenshot of an internal dashboard or spreadsheet before it goes into a slide deck. Anywhere the PII exists as text sitting inside a picture rather than as a field in a document.

The same rule the rest of the product follows applies here without exception: the original image is never modified. Redaction writes a new file and leaves yours exactly as it was.

## A side effect worth knowing

One side effect worth knowing about, not a feature we built on purpose: when Omit writes the redacted image back out, it does not carry the original EXIF data across the re-encode. A lot of photos carry more than the picture, GPS coordinates, device model, a timestamp, and that layer does not survive the redacted copy either.

## Where this is weaker

Where this is weaker, honestly. OCR accuracy depends on the image. A low-resolution screenshot or a heavily compressed photo can lose words the detector never gets a chance to see, and handwriting is a harder problem for any OCR engine than printed text, ours included. If the text is legible to OCR, the same detection that finds PII in a document finds it here. If OCR can't read it, nothing downstream can act on it.

Everything above is measured the same way the rest of this product is measured: an offline pass on a real file, not a claim about a demo.