PNGMender

Eyedropper · tolerance · soft edges

Make a PNG transparent

Knock out a solid background colour, such as the white behind a logo or a product shot, and save the result as a transparent PNG.

Edited in this tab. Nothing is uploaded.

Drop an image

PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF with a plain background.

Preview background
Preview on

Remove colour

Click the image to pick the colour with the eyedropper. Auto takes the most common colour along the edges.

10
8
Which pixels

From the edges keeps enclosed areas, such as the inside of an O, even if they share the colour.

How to remove a background colour

  1. Open an image with a fairly even background: a logo on white, a scan, a product on a coloured sweep, a screenshot.
  2. The background colour is guessed from the image edges. If it is wrong, click the background in the preview, type a hex value or use the colour picker.
  3. Raise the tolerance until the background is gone but the subject is untouched, then add some edge softness so outlines stay smooth.
  4. Check the result on the checkerboard and on the colours you plan to use, then download the PNG.

The tolerance is a distance in RGB colour: 0 removes only the exact colour, 10 also takes compression noise and slight shading, and 30 or more starts to eat into similar colours in the subject.

Edges, fringes and enclosed areas

Edge softness makes pixels just beyond the tolerance partly transparent instead of cutting them hard, which keeps anti-aliased outlines smooth.

Remove colour fringe works out how much background colour is mixed into each soft edge pixel and removes it, so a logo cut from white does not keep a pale halo on a dark page.

From the edges removes only background that is connected to the border of the image, like a paint-bucket fill; every match also clears holes and gaps inside the subject.

Afterwards, the transparent PNG trimmer can crop away the empty space around the subject.

Questions

Can it remove a busy or photographic background?

No. This tool removes one colour and its close neighbours, which suits flat or evenly lit backgrounds. Separating a person from a street scene needs a segmentation model, which this site does not use.

Why are bits of my subject disappearing?

Parts of the subject are close to the background colour. Lower the tolerance, switch to “From the edges” so only connected background is removed, or reduce the edge softness.

Why is there a white halo around my logo?

The edge pixels are a mix of logo and white background. Keep “Remove colour fringe” on and add a little edge softness; the halo disappears when you preview on a dark colour.

Does it work with JPG files?

Yes. JPG, WebP and GIF images are decoded by your browser and saved as PNG, the format that can store transparency. JPEG noise makes backgrounds uneven, so use a tolerance of 10 or more.

Is the image uploaded?

No. Decoding, background removal and PNG encoding run in a background worker in this browser tab.

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