Why did parts of my subject turn transparent too?

The tool erases white by color alone and has no idea what's background versus subject, so white teeth, the whites of eyes, a white shirt, or paper showing through a logo's letters all disappear along with the backdrop. If your subject contains white you need to keep, a color threshold isn't the right approach for that image.

What's the pale halo left around the edges?

Transparency here is all-or-nothing — no partial fade — so the ring of light-but-not-white pixels where your subject meets the background survives as a faint fringe. Raising tolerance thins the halo but starts eating into the subject, and there's no anti-aliased feather to hide the seam.

How exactly does the tolerance slider decide what to erase?

It ranges 0–120, and a pixel is erased only if its red, green, and blue channels are all at least 255 minus the tolerance. At 0 only pure white (255,255,255) goes; to clear a light gray like (200,200,200) you need tolerance of at least 55, since 255 − 55 = 200.

Will it work on a photo of a person or a pet?

Not well — a color threshold can't cleanly separate a subject from a busy or shaded background, and it can't handle hair or fur edges. It shines on solid white backdrops with hard-edged subjects like logos, icons, product shots, and scanned signatures; for photos, use a dedicated AI background remover.

What format is the output, and can it be a JPG?

The result is a PNG (saved as name_transparent.png) because PNG is the common format that stores an alpha channel. JPG can't hold transparency at all, so a transparent cutout must be PNG — exporting to JPG would fill the cleared area back in with a solid color.

Remove White Background

Make white backgrounds transparent.

Choose an image

Processed in your browser — never uploaded, discarded after download.

What is Remove White Background?

Remove White Background makes a white or near-white backdrop transparent and saves the result as a PNG — a free way to turn logos, product shots, and signatures into transparent PNGs in your browser. A tolerance slider with a live checkerboard preview lets you clear off-white and light-gray pixels too.

Key features

Tolerance slider from pure white to off-white and light gray
Live checkerboard preview shows exactly what turns transparent
Outputs a PNG with a transparent background
Fast color-threshold method, ideal for solid white backdrops

How to remove a white background from an image

Turn a white backdrop into transparency and save a PNG — the go-to fix for a logo you got on a white card, a product shot on a seamless white sweep, or a signature scanned on paper. It works by color, not by AI, which makes it fast and predictable for exactly those flat, high-contrast cases.

Steps

Choose an image. It's drawn onto a checkerboard immediately, so transparent areas show as the gray-and-white grid.
Adjust the tolerance slider (0–120). At 0, only pixels that are pure white (255, 255, 255) become transparent. As you raise it, off-white and light-gray pixels drop out too. The preview updates live, so nudge the slider until the background clears but your subject stays solid.
Remove background & download. You get a PNG named <name>_transparent.png.

How the threshold actually works

Every pixel is tested independently: it's erased only if its red, green, and blue channels are all at least 255 − tolerance. So tolerance is a floor. At tolerance 20, any channel below 235 keeps the pixel. To clear a light gray like (200, 200, 200) you need tolerance of at least 55 (since 255 − 55 = 200). This is why a faint gray gradient behind a logo sometimes needs the slider pushed higher than you'd expect — and why pushing it too far starts eating light parts of your subject.

The two things that trip people up

It punches holes in white anywhere, not just the background. The tool has no concept of "background" versus "subject" — it only sees color. White teeth, the white of an eye, a white shirt, or the paper showing through a logo's letters will all go transparent along with the backdrop. If your subject contains white you want to keep, this threshold approach isn't the right tool for that image.

Edges can leave a pale halo. Transparency here is all-or-nothing — a pixel is either fully erased or fully kept, with no partial fade. Where a subject meets a white background, the camera or JPEG compression blends a ring of light-but-not-white pixels. Those sit just above your threshold, so they survive as a faint white fringe. Raising tolerance thins the halo but risks nibbling the subject; there's no anti-aliased feather to hide the seam.

When it shines, and when to switch tools

Reach for this on solid white backgrounds with a hard-edged subject: vector-style logos, icons, flat illustrations, and clean scans. It's instant and gives you exact control. For a photo of a person, a furry pet, hair, or any busy background, a color threshold can't separate subject from surroundings cleanly — a dedicated AI background remover handles those far better. It's also worth saving the source as PNG rather than JPG when you can, since JPG artifacts widen that edge halo.

Privacy

The cutout runs against the image's raw pixel data locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded at any point, so private or unreleased artwork never leaves your device.

Frequently asked questions

Why did parts of my subject turn transparent too?: The tool erases white by color alone and has no idea what's background versus subject, so white teeth, the whites of eyes, a white shirt, or paper showing through a logo's letters all disappear along with the backdrop. If your subject contains white you need to keep, a color threshold isn't the right approach for that image.
What's the pale halo left around the edges?: Transparency here is all-or-nothing — no partial fade — so the ring of light-but-not-white pixels where your subject meets the background survives as a faint fringe. Raising tolerance thins the halo but starts eating into the subject, and there's no anti-aliased feather to hide the seam.
How exactly does the tolerance slider decide what to erase?: It ranges 0–120, and a pixel is erased only if its red, green, and blue channels are all at least 255 minus the tolerance. At 0 only pure white (255,255,255) goes; to clear a light gray like (200,200,200) you need tolerance of at least 55, since 255 − 55 = 200.
Will it work on a photo of a person or a pet?: Not well — a color threshold can't cleanly separate a subject from a busy or shaded background, and it can't handle hair or fur edges. It shines on solid white backdrops with hard-edged subjects like logos, icons, product shots, and scanned signatures; for photos, use a dedicated AI background remover.
What format is the output, and can it be a JPG?: The result is a PNG (saved as name_transparent.png) because PNG is the common format that stores an alpha channel. JPG can't hold transparency at all, so a transparent cutout must be PNG — exporting to JPG would fill the cleared area back in with a solid color.

Privacy

The tolerance-based cutout runs against the image's pixel data locally; nothing is sent to a server at any point.