Make any photo into a transparent PNG

What you get

A PNG file with the original subject preserved and the background replaced by full transparency (alpha = 0). The output dimensions match your input (capped at 4096 pixels on the longest edge for performance). The file size is typically 100-500 KB for a phone photo.

Where transparent PNGs work

• Design tools: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Affinity Designer — all import PNG with alpha and let you place the cutout on any background.
• Slides: Keynote, Google Slides, PowerPoint — transparent PNG is the standard format for slide-ready images.
• Web: Any browser. Use <img src="cutout.png"> over a coloured div, gradient, or background image.
• Social: Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn — all accept PNG with alpha and preserve the transparency in posts (display backgrounds vary by platform).
• Word, Pages, Docs: Drop a PNG with alpha onto any document and it sits cleanly without a white box around it.

Where transparent PNG doesn't work

• JPEG export: If you save your transparent PNG back as JPEG, the alpha is stripped and replaced with white (or whatever background colour the export tool uses). Always save as PNG to preserve transparency.
• Email signatures: Some email clients (especially older Outlook) struggle with PNG alpha and show a grey box around the image. For email, often safer to bake the background colour in.
• Animated formats: Animated GIF doesn't support smooth transparency. For animated cutouts, use WebP or AVIF.

How transparent PNGs are made

Every PNG pixel has four channels: red, green, blue, alpha. The alpha channel is a number from 0 to 255 saying "how opaque is this pixel". 0 is fully see-through; 255 is fully solid. When you drop a PNG with alpha onto a coloured background, the alpha = 0 pixels disappear and the background colour shows through.

Background-removal tools work by running an AI model that predicts which pixels are subject and which are background, then setting the alpha of the background pixels to 0. Edges get partial alpha values (e.g. 128 for a wispy hair pixel) so the subject blends smoothly into whatever new background it's placed on.

What if I want a coloured background?

A transparent PNG is the universal source. If you need a specific background colour permanently baked in, open the PNG in any image editor (Figma, Photopea, Pixlr) and add a coloured rectangle underneath. Then export as PNG (with the new background) or JPEG.

For a one-shot "subject on white" output, the easiest path is: cutout here → open in Photopea → Image > Canvas Color > White → File > Export As > JPEG. Total time: under a minute.