Nepenthe icon
Indication

Nepenthe

Removes faces, number plates and location data before you publish.

Drop in a photo and Nepenthe proposes the faces, plates and sensitive text it finds. You decide on every one, the covered pixels are destroyed, and the written file is read back and checked before you publish it.

Coming to the Mac App Store
Batch No. 0512 macOS iPadOS · iOS — in preparation Poison
What the dose does

How it removes what identifies

I.

Proposes, never decides

Detection finds faces, number plates and sensitive text, and offers each one for your review. You confirm, remove, or draw the regions it missed. Nothing is written until you have looked.

II.

Destroys the covered pixels

The export encodes a new file with those pixels gone — no layers, no overlays, nothing recoverable underneath. Your original is never modified, so you finish with two files.

III.

Reads the result back

The written file is opened again and re-scanned. If anything is still detectable it is held back and reported, rather than handed to you as finished.

On the bench

Nepenthe at work

The review canvas, regions awaiting your judgement
Screenshot placeholder
The review canvas, regions awaiting your judgement
Ailment & cure

Before the dose, after the dose

The ailment
  • A smeared rectangle dragged over a number plate
  • Pixelation that a specialist can reverse
  • GPS coordinates left in the file, pointing at a front door
The cure
  • The covered pixels destroyed, then re-encoded
  • Solid fill, with reversible treatments refused where they matter
  • Location and camera metadata removed by default
Directions for use

Frequently asked

How accurate is the detection?

Not perfect, and the app is built on that assumption. Faces in profile, faces in reflections, partly hidden number plates and unusual text can all be missed. That is why every proposed region is shown for your review, why you can draw regions yourself, and why each export is re-scanned and reported. You are responsible for confirming the result before you publish it.

Does it change my original image?

No. The redacted copy is always written as a new file — Nepenthe never writes in place. You finish an export with two files, and the original is yours to keep or delete.

Can the redaction be undone?

Not from the exported file. The covered pixels are composited away and the file re-encoded, so no layer or overlay hides the original underneath. Blur and pixelation are offered only for faces, and never for number plates, text or documents, because both can be partly reversed.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Processing happens entirely on your Mac. There is no account and no server — nothing to trust us with.

The rest of the shelf

Different symptom, same cabinet.