How to remove a background in Word

To remove the background from a picture in Word, select the picture and choose Remove Background on the Picture Format tab. Word colors what it plans to remove magenta, you adjust its guess with Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove, and Keep Changes applies the result. For a logo or clip art on one flat color, Set Transparent Color is quicker: click the color and it turns transparent. Microsoft's help describes both for the desktop versions of Word on Windows and Mac; depending on your version, the tab may be called Format or appear under Picture Tools.

Using Remove Background

On Windows, the command sits at Picture Format > Remove Background, or Format > Remove Background in some versions. On a Mac, it's on the Picture Format tab of the ribbon. While you work, Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove wait on the Background Removal tab.

The colors tell you what will happen: magenta goes, natural color stays. Automatic cutouts most often go wrong where the subject and background have similar colors, in enclosed gaps such as the inside of a cup handle, and around fine detail like hair, so check those places first. Both marking tools work with a pencil: draw over the area you want to change. If the marks get messy, Discard All Changes returns the picture to how it was.

Set Transparent Color for logos and flat backgrounds

When the background is one solid color, as with a logo or clip art on white, Set Transparent Color makes that color see-through with a single click:

1. Select the picture and go to Picture Format > Color. In older versions it's Picture Tools > Format > Color; on a Mac, Microsoft's help says Color or Recolor.
2. Select Set Transparent Color.
3. When the pointer changes, click the color you want to make transparent.

The tool has firm limits. Only one color in a picture can be transparent, and it works only on an object inserted as a picture, not a picture used to fill a shape. Because it targets a color rather than an area, white inside the subject, such as the middle of a letter O, turns transparent along with a white background. For scans and logos that need more care, our guide to removing a white background covers halos and white areas inside the subject.

Letting text follow the cutout

Word can wrap text around the outline of a cutout instead of its rectangle, which suits a product shot or a portrait inside a flyer or report. Microsoft's help describes it this way:

1. Select the picture and choose Picture Format (or Format) > Wrap Text > Tight.
2. Remove the background as described above.
3. Click outside the picture to see how the text flows around it.
4. If the text sits too far away, choose Wrap Text > Edit Wrap Points, drag the black points closer to the subject, and drag the red line to add more points.

Microsoft's tip is that this works best with a picture that has a transparent, white or solid-colored background. Any layout except In Line with Text also lets you drag the picture anywhere on the page.

Saving the cutout as a PNG

Inside the document, the cutout is ready to use. To reuse it elsewhere, Save as Picture writes it to its own file, and PNG is the format to pick: Microsoft's own description says parts of a PNG can be transparent. A JPEG can't store transparency, so its removed area comes back as a solid color, which is also why converting a JPG to PNG doesn't remove a background by itself.

Doing it in the browser instead

If you're working in Word for the web, or Remove Background leaves rough edges around hair or fur, Background Remover PNG makes the cutout in your browser for free, with no signup, and the picture is processed on your own device rather than uploaded. You download a full-size transparent PNG with no watermark and insert it into your document like any other picture. For a handwritten signature in a letter or form, the transparent signature tool turns a photo of it into dark ink on a transparent background.