These guides show how to remove a background in apps people already use: Photoshop, Canva, Illustrator, GIMP, PowerPoint and Word, plus the tools built into iPhone. Each one follows the app's current menus, checked against the vendor's own help pages in September 2026, and points out where a menu differs between versions. Every guide ends the same way, with a PNG that keeps its transparency, because that last step is where most cutouts go wrong.
Photoshop
The Photoshop guide starts with the Remove Background quick action, which you'll find in the Properties panel and the Contextual Task Bar and which hides the background with an editable layer mask. It then covers Select Subject for a selection you can correct before masking, and Select and Mask for hair and fur, including Refine Hair, the Refine Edge Brush tool and Decontaminate Colors. It also shows where to choose between device and cloud processing, and how to export a transparent PNG with Export As or Quick Export.
Canva
The Canva guide walks through BG Remover in the editor toolbar, cleaning up edges with the erase and restore brushes, and downloading a PNG with Transparent background turned on. It lists which plans include Background Remover and transparent downloads according to Canva's Help Center as of September 2026, along with the limits Canva documents, such as the 9 MB photo size and the 10 MP downscale after removal.
Illustrator
The Illustrator guide separates placed photos from vector artwork, because Illustrator treats them differently. It covers the Remove Background command for photos in recent versions, clipping masks for objects with clean outlines, Image Trace for logos on white, and deleting background shapes in artwork you drew yourself. It finishes with the PNG Options setting that decides whether the export is transparent.
GIMP
The GIMP guide covers both GIMP 2.10 and 3.x. It explains why the alpha channel has to come first, when to use Fuzzy Select, Select by Color or Foreground Select, how to clean a halo from the edge, and how to export a PNG with File > Export As, since Save only writes GIMP's own XCF format.
iPhone
The iPhone guide starts with lifting a subject: touch and hold it in Photos, Safari or Quick Look, then copy it, share it, drag it into another app or keep it as a sticker. For an actual file, it uses the Preview app in iOS 26 and later, whose Remove Background command and PNG export give you a transparent PNG, with notes on where Apple's iOS 26 and iOS 27 guides differ.
PowerPoint
The PowerPoint guide covers Remove Background on the Picture Format tab, correcting the magenta preview with Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove, and saving the cutout as a PNG with Save as Picture. It also explains the newer Edit Image editor Microsoft is rolling out, how Transparency differs from removing a background, and how picture compression can shrink the saved file.
Word
The Word guide uses the same Remove Background command, then adds Set Transparent Color for a logo or clip art on one flat color and Tight text wrapping, so text follows the outline of the cutout. It finishes with Save as Picture for a PNG and answers what Word for the web can't do.
What every method has in common
Whatever app you use, the background only becomes transparent in a format that can store it. PNG can; JPG can't, so a cutout saved as a JPG comes back with a solid background. The checkerboard you see in many apps is just how they display transparency and is not part of the file. Keep an editable copy too, such as a PSD or XCF, so you can adjust the edge later.
Or skip the app
If you'd rather not open a design app at all, Background Remover PNG removes the background in your browser for free, with no signup. The photo is processed on your own device instead of being uploaded, and you download a full-size transparent PNG with no watermark.