A logo sent as a JPG, a signature scanned from paper, a drawing photographed on a white desk: they all arrive with a white box around them. On a white page you never notice, but on a coloured slide, a dark website or a T-shirt mock-up the box shows at once.
This page is a white background remover for exactly that job. It opens Make background transparent set up to remove the white background from an image, but only around the design, so white inside it, such as the white of an eye, is kept. It runs in your browser, it is free, and it saves a transparent PNG or WebP. Below: the steps, what happens to white inside the design, how to clean up a signature or a logo, and how to avoid a pale halo.
How to remove the white background from an image
- Press Select images, or drop one or more pictures onto the page.
- The Colour to remove is already White and Only the background around the edges is on, so the stage shows the white around your design taken away.
- Look at the checkerboard behind it. If a pale edge or a few specks of white are left, raise Tolerance a little.
- Set Preview on to Ink to check the edges against a dark colour. The backdrop is only for checking and is never saved.
- Press Make transparent and save the PNG. Its name ends in _transparent.
White here means pure white. Paper, scanner light and JPG compression rarely give pure white, so Tolerance starts at 20 and near-white shades go as well. Hold to compare shows the original at any time, and Split view shows before and after side by side.
White inside the design: kept or removed
With Only the background around the edges on, the tool starts at the border of the picture and spreads inwards through white, stopping wherever the colour is no longer close to it. Anything white that it cannot reach this way stays.
| White area | Edges only on | Edges only off |
|---|---|---|
| The background around the design | Removed | Removed |
| Details inside, such as an eye or a highlight | Kept | Removed |
| Holes inside letters such as O, A and e | Kept | Removed |
| White text on a coloured shape | Kept | Removed |
So for a transparent logo with lettering that will sit on a coloured background, you may want the holes in the letters gone as well: switch the toggle off. If the logo also has white parts that must stay, keep it on and accept white holes, or save one version of each and compare them on the page where they will go.
Signatures, logos and product photos on white
Each kind of picture has its own catch. These are the common ones and how to handle them.
Remove the background from a signature
Scan or photograph the signature, or a drawing, in good, even light. Paper usually comes out light grey, so raise Tolerance until the paper goes, and keep an eye on thin pen strokes, which fade if you go too far. Switch the toggle off so the loops of the letters clear too.
If the paper is still grey, make it whiter first with Adjust image colour, using more Brightness and Contrast, then remove the white here. The result is a transparent signature PNG to place on a document, a form or a slide.
A product photo on white
A product photo on white works when the backdrop is even and the shadow is soft. A strong shadow under the product is not white, so it stays as part of the picture; trim it off with Crop image if it is at the bottom edge. Pale products, such as white trainers on white, are the hard case: where the product touches the background, it can go too.
An icon or a flat graphic
Icons, diagrams and screenshots of flat designs often sit on pure white, which is the easiest case. Tolerance can stay low, and Edge softness at 0 gives a crisp, pixel-sharp outline. Raise the softness for anything with curves or lettering, so the edge does not look stepped.
A logo saved as JPG
JPG files carry faint blotches around sharp edges. Raise Tolerance a few points to clear them, and check on Ink for a light halo. If you can get the logo as a PNG or the original design file, start from that instead.
The same page is a logo background remover when the box behind the logo is not white. Set Colour to remove to that colour, or press Pick from picture and click the box, and the rest works the same way.
Save a transparent PNG and use it
Save as gives you PNG or WebP. PNG keeps every pixel exactly and opens almost anywhere, so it is the usual choice for logos and signatures; WebP is saved at high quality and suits websites. JPG is not offered, because it cannot hold transparency.
Turning a white background to transparent is often one step of a few. Drop the PNG onto a slide, a letterhead, a website header or a product page, and the colour behind it shows through. If a light fringe appears on a dark page, go back, raise Tolerance a little, and save again. The same PNG makes a clean photo watermark, with only the logo drawn on each picture.
Select up to 100 pictures to clean a whole set, such as a folder of product shots or icons. The button reads Make 10 transparent, a file that cannot be opened is skipped, and Save all as ZIP keeps the results together.
- It runs in your browser. The picture is never uploaded, and our server does no picture work.
- It is free, with no account and no watermark. Image tools are not counted in the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
- It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Very large pictures may be too big for your browser.
Read how files are treated on the privacy page.
Clear the white from your design now
Open a picture above: White and the edges-only switch are already set. Raise Tolerance for a pale halo, check the result on Ink, and press Make transparent to remove the white background from your image and save a PNG.
It is free and private, and it runs in your browser.
