Blurred Frame

Add a blurred frame around any photo — side blur for vertical or horizontal pictures, in any aspect ratio. Adjust the blur, photo size, and background zoom, then download.

or drop an image here, or from your clipboard

What is Blurred Frame?

Blurred Frame is a free online tool that adds a blur frame around any photo: your picture stays sharp in the center while a blurred, zoomed copy of it fills the borders. It's the classic side blur look — perfect when a vertical photo has to fit a horizontal space (or the other way round) without cropping or ugly black bars. Everything runs in your browser, with no signup and no watermarks.

How do I add a blurred frame in 3 steps?

Upload your photo — click Choose an image, drag and drop, or paste from your clipboard.

Pick an aspect ratio and tune the frame — choose the output shape (1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 9:16, original, or custom), then adjust the Blur Amount, Photo Size, and Background Zoom sliders.

Download — export as JPEG, PNG, or WEBP at any size up to 10000px.

What is side blur?

Side blur means filling the empty sides of a photo with a blurred version of the photo itself. You've seen it everywhere: TV news showing vertical phone videos, YouTube shorts reposted as landscape, Instagram posts where a horizontal picture needs a vertical frame. Because the blurred borders come from your own image, the colors always match — it looks intentional, not padded.

Ratio

Best for

1:1

Instagram posts, profile pictures, product photos

4:3 / 3:4

classic photo prints, iPad screens

16:9

YouTube thumbnails, presentations, TV

9:16

Stories, Reels, TikTok, phone wallpapers

Original

keep the photo's own shape, just add the blur frame

Custom

any width-to-height ratio you type in

What do the three sliders do?

Blur Amount — how soft the frame is, from a subtle haze to a fully abstract wash of color.

Photo Size — how large the sharp photo sits inside the frame; shrink it for a thicker frame, enlarge it past 100% for a tight border.

Background Zoom — how far the blurred copy is zoomed in. More zoom means broader color fields; less shows more of the picture's structure.

Want a square with a plain color instead? Use Square Image — or make a full-size profile picture with Full DP.

Frequently asked questions

How do I blur the sides of a photo?

Upload the photo and pick the shape you need — the sides fill with a blurred copy of the picture automatically. Background Zoom controls how abstract the sides look; Blur Amount controls the softness. For the classic news-style side blur on a vertical picture, choose 16:9.

How do I post a vertical picture on Instagram without cropping it?

Choose 1:1 (or type 4:5 as a custom ratio for portrait posts). The whole photo stays visible in the middle and the blur fills the rest — no cropping, no white bars. The 1200px default export is exactly what Instagram needs.

How do I make a horizontal photo fit a Story or TikTok?

Pick 9:16. The photo sits sharp in the center and the blurred frame fills the tall format — the same trick TV news uses for phone footage, in reverse.

How do I make the blurred frame thicker or thinner?

That's the Photo Size slider: shrink the photo for a thick frame, push it past 100% for a thin border right at the edges. Blur Amount doesn't change the frame's width — only how soft it looks.

Why did the sliders change when I picked an aspect ratio?

The tool auto-fits every time you change the shape: the photo is sized so a frame shows on all sides, and the background is zoomed just enough to cover the whole canvas. It's a starting point — drag any slider to override it.

Will the download look like the preview?

Yes — the export scales the blur to match what you see, whether you download at 1200px or 10000px. The frame is always your own image, so the colors match; nothing generic is pasted on top.