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One-Slider Blur. Just Pick an Intensity

The safest and simplest form of Blur in the family. A single slider from 1 (lightest) to 10 (heaviest) is the only control — the tool automatically picks the right downscaling ratio behind the scenes so you can't accidentally pick a setting that fails. As long as the input image is at least 7 × 7 pixels, Image Blur (Simple) is guaranteed to succeed. Perfect for quick privacy blurs, soft backgrounds, glow layers, or any time you just want a clean, error-free blur without tuning multiple parameters.

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What it does

Image Blur (Simple) applies a Gaussian blur to the entire image using a single Blur intensity slider from 1 to 10. Internally it follows the same Downscale → Gaussian Blur → Upscale pipeline as Image Blur (Fast), but the downscale ratio is auto-tuned by intensity instead of being a user input. At intensity 1 the image is halved before blurring; at intensity 10 it's reduced to 7 × 7 pixels before blurring. A fixed 5 × 5 Gaussian kernel is applied, then the image is upsampled back to its original size. Because the tool chooses the downscale ratio automatically, it can never pick a ratio that shrinks the image below the kernel size — so it never errors out the way Image Blur (Fast) can if you push its scale factor too low.

Problem it solves

• Blur without tuning – One slider replaces the kernel/multiplier/scale knobs in the other blur tools
• No more downscale-vs-kernel errors – Image Blur (Fast) can fail when the manual downscale ratio shrinks the image below the Gaussian kernel; Simple sidesteps this entirely by auto-tuning the ratio
• Guaranteed to run on any image ≥ 7 × 7 px – The safest blur in the family for unknown / mixed input batches
• Predictable intensity scaling – Levels 1–10 map cleanly to "barely blurred" through "completely abstracted"
• Fast across the whole range – Higher intensities downscale more aggressively, so even heavy blur stays fast
• Privacy / redaction – Quickly obscure entire frames (e.g., for preview thumbnails or compliance pipelines)
• Background / glow layers – Generate soft compositing layers for Image Add / Multiply
• Real-time / batch friendly – Lightweight CPU-only processing, no GPU dependency
• Lower friction for new users – Easier entry point than Image Blur (Standard) or Image Blur (Fast)

Input/Output

• Input: Single image (any size)
  • Format: PNG, JPEG, or standard image formats
  • Minimum size: 7 × 7 pixels – Any image at or above this size is guaranteed to process successfully
  • Content: Any image (photos, screenshots, layers, etc.)
• Output: Blurred image
  • Format: Same as input
  • Resolution: Same as input (downscale + upsample happens internally)

Configuration Options

• Blur intensity: Single slider controlling how strongly the image is blurred.
  • Range: 1 – 10
  • Behavior: Higher intensity = more aggressive internal downscaling before the Gaussian pass, producing a softer/heavier blur on output
  • Reference points:
    • 1 – Image is halved internally; subtle, light blur
    • 5 – Moderate blur; good general-purpose default
    • 10 – Image is reduced to 7 × 7 px internally; very heavy, near-abstracted blur (highest level)
  • Kernel: Fixed 5 × 5 Gaussian kernel — applied at the auto-chosen downscaled resolution, then the image is upsampled back to its original size.
  • Safety: Because the downscale ratio is auto-tuned by intensity (never user-driven), the downscaled image can never be smaller than the Gaussian kernel — so the tool will not error out on the kernel-size mismatch that Image Blur (Fast) can hit when its scale factor is pushed too low.

How to Use