Remove white background from image

The white preset above removes a white background from an image in one pass: an AI cutout separates the subject, and removal of near-white areas goes after leftover white that a cutout alone might keep. Drop your image in, check the edges, and download a transparent PNG that keeps the pixel dimensions of your original. It costs nothing, adds no watermark, and the image is processed on your own device instead of being sent anywhere.

AI cutout vs removing a color

There are two ways to get rid of white, and each one fails in a different place.

An AI cutout looks at the whole picture and decides which parts of it are the subject. It follows a complicated outline well and is not fooled by white inside the subject, so the white label on a bottle survives. Its weak spot is white that the subject encloses: the hole in a letter O, or the gap between an arm and a body, can stay filled in because the model reads it as part of the shape.

Removing a color works the other way around. You click a shade, and every pixel close to it disappears, wherever it sits in the image. Enclosed gaps empty out, but so does any part of the subject that shares that shade.

The white preset uses both. If a hole is still filled after it runs, one click with the Remove a color tool clears it; if it takes something you wanted, the restore brush paints it back.

What the white preset is for

• Product shots on white, from a backdrop, a light box or a supplier's catalog.
• Scans of sketches, stamps, hand lettering or a child's drawing. Scanned paper often comes out slightly gray or cream, which is why the preset removes near-white rather than one exact shade.
• Clipart and icons that arrived inside a white box.
• Logos on white. For crisp edges, trimming and sizing, see the logo background remover.
• Signatures on paper, which have their own transparent signature preset with a choice of ink color.

If the background is not white at all, such as a street, a living room or a patterned tablecloth, use the standard cutout to remove the background from any image.

Setting the tolerance

Tolerance decides how different from the clicked white a pixel can be and still be removed. At a low setting only bright white goes; raise it and off-white, light gray and faint shadows go too. Raise it in small steps, and once pale parts of the subject start to vanish, such as cream packaging, light wood or a pale sweater, go back one step.

Fixing white halos and fringe

A thin white outline around the cutout is called a halo, or fringe. It comes from the edge pixels. Where a product meets a white background, each pixel along the boundary is a blend of the two, and JPG compression adds pale specks along the same line. You will not see them on a white page, but on a dark background they glow.

To find a halo, switch the background to black and drag the before/after slider across the edges. Then raise the tolerance slightly, or trace the edge with the erase brush set small and fairly soft. If you shave off too much, undo or the restore brush brings it back. Return to the transparent background before you download.

Swapping gray-white for pure white

Sometimes you remove white only to put white back. A product shot on a white backdrop often comes out light gray, with uneven shading and a darker corner. That matters for selling: Amazon's main images must sit on pure white, which is RGB 255, 255, 255, and many marketplaces ask for plain white behind the main product photo. Cut the product out, choose the white background, and download a JPG with an even white from edge to edge. Keep the transparent version as a PNG; this guide to transparent backgrounds and file formats explains why.