Mac Redaction Ideas Primer Tutorial
Redaction …
redaction
/rɪˈdakʃ(ə)n/Learn to pronounce
noun
the process of editing text for publication.
“what was left after the redaction would be virtually useless”
the censoring or obscuring of part of a text for legal or security purposes.
a version of a text, such as a new edition or an abridged version.
plural noun: redactions
“the author himself never chose to establish a definitive redaction”
… is often needed when you make a presentation involving an example using personal data. Like with blinds (like 2 or 3 or 4 below) or see-through bricks (like 4 below) in a shower or frosted glass (like 3 below) there are various forms of redaction (or “obfuscation”) …
- complete “cut out”
- totally opaque block out
- blur to a level that shapes can be made out but text is hard or impossible to read and imagery is blurry or moving so as to lack detail and focus
- blur to a level that just shows that something used to be there but there is no way to read any text or make out any imagery
- obfuscate that changes detail and focus
… and we were interested in terms of mainly using macOS (or Mac OS X) on a MacBook Pro putting presentations together, some of the redaction techniques we use here on a fairly regular basis …
| MacOS Desktop Application | Form of Redaction | Selection Steps in Application | Other Steps in Application | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paintbrush | 1 | Window -> Toolbox Rectangle Dashed icon click Drag top left to bottom right |
Edit -> Cut | |
| 2 | Window -> Toolbox Rectangle Dashed icon click Drag top left to bottom right |
Edit -> Copy | Edit -> Paste Drag into “block out” position |
|
| Preview | 1 | Tools -> Rectangular Selection Drag top left to bottom right |
Edit -> Cut | |
| 2 | Tools -> Rectangular Selection Drag top left to bottom right |
Edit -> Copy | Edit -> Paste Drag into “block out” position |
|
| 2 | Tools -> Annotate -> Rectangle
Drag to resize and reposition into “block out” position |
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| 2 | Tools -> Annotate -> Oval
Drag to resize and reposition into “block out” position |
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| 2 | Tools -> Annotate -> Polygon
Drag to resize and reposition into “block out” position |
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| 2 | Tools -> Annotate -> Star
Drag to resize and reposition into “block out” position |
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| 5 | Tools -> Annotate -> Text
Drag to resize and reposition into “align, or block out” position as well as text definition resizing |
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| 5 | Tools -> Annotate -> Line
Drag to resize and reposition into “align, or block out” position |
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| 5 | Tools -> Annotate -> Arrow
Drag to resize and reposition into “align, or block out” position |
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| 5 | Tools -> Annotate -> Speech Bubble
Drag to resize and reposition into “enhance, align, or block out” position as well as the arrow repositioning functionality (as shown in today’s tutorial picture) |
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| 5 | Tools -> Annotate -> Loupe
Drag to resize and reposition into “magnifying” position (as shown in today’s tutorial picture) |
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| Gimp | 1 | Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select Drag top left to bottom right |
Edit -> Cut | |
| 2 | Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select Drag top left to bottom right Edit -> Copy |
Edit -> Paste Drag into “block out” position |
||
| 3 | Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select Drag top left to bottom right |
Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur… Leave Defaults Click OK |
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| 4 | Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select Drag top left to bottom right |
Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur… Increase Size X and Size Y to appropriate level of blurring Click OK (as shown in today’s tutorial picture) |
||
| 3 | Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select Drag top left to bottom right |
Filters -> Blur -> Linear Motion… Leave Defaults Click OK |
||
| 4 | Tools -> Selection Tools -> Rectangle Select Drag top left to bottom right |
Filters -> Blur -> Linear Motion… Increase Length and/or Angle to appropriate level of motion feeling blurriness (as shown in today’s tutorial picture) Click OK |
Paintbrush and Gimp are primarily image editors, and Preview can be an image editor or image and text combination editor or PDF creator and/or editor (“out of the box” for macOS or Mac OS X).
We hope this is of interest to you budding “procedural explainers” out there?!
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