Visually mask text on web pages: hide words by hand, make blackout poems, or cover emails, links and phone numbers.
Users
21
+4 in 30 days
Rating
4.7 / 5
unchanged in 30 days
Ratings
3
0 in 30 days
Store rank
#151K
#126K among extensions
Version
2.0.0
updated 12 Oct 2026
Users
monthly, 9 months
Latest, 21 Oct 2026:21 usersMove the mouse over the chart for any month
Ratings count
monthly, 9 months
Latest, 21 Oct 2026:3 ratingsMove the mouse over the chart for any month
The Chrome Web Store rounds user counts down to the leading digit, so the user line moves in steps. The ratings count is exact and is the better signal of real adoption.
About Soft Blackout
Visually mask text on web pages: hide words by hand, make blackout poems, or cover emails, links and phone numbers.
Hide what you don't want to show with Soft Blackout. Mask words by hand, turn any article into a blackout poem, or cover contact details before you share a screenshot, all directly on the original page.
Screenshots, screen shares, demos and tutorials often show more than you meant to. Soft Blackout gives you simple masking tools for designers, writers, teachers, support teams and anyone who shares web pages with others. It also turns any article into a canvas for blackout poetry.
Manual — Mask exactly what you select
- Select text and choose Mask to cover it.
- Select inside a mask and choose Reveal to bring part of it back.
- Turn on Mask on select to mask mouse selections instantly, without confirming each one.
- Choose Done to end the session and keep your masks.
Poetry — Make blackout poems
- Choose the words you want to keep, one selection at a time.
- Preview kept words on the page before applying.
- Apply composition hides the rest of each paragraph.
- Edit composition reopens your poem to keep more words or remove some.
- Soft Blackout never picks words for you.
Pattern Mask — Cover contact details
- Find email addresses, URLs and phone numbers on the page.
- Choose which categories to scan for.
- Check the counts before anything is masked, then apply them in one step.
Why Soft Blackout?
- Works directly on the original web page; the page's text and layout stay untouched.
- Choose Solid blocks or a Marker band, in five colours.
- Undo, Redo and Reset page work across all three modes.
- System, Light and Dark themes, with full keyboard support.
Privacy
Soft Blackout activates on a web page only when you use it there. It does not collect, track, or sell your data. It uses the activeTab and scripting permissions to place masks on the current page and the storage permission to save your settings on this device. Masks disappear when you reload or leave the page.
How to use
1. Open a web page and click the Soft Blackout icon in your Chrome toolbar.
2. Choose Manual, Poetry or Pattern Mask.
3. Select text, compose a poem or scan the page, and the masks appear right away.