Change Image Background

1. Open a photo.
2. Choose the new background: Transparent, a Colour, or an Image.
3. Choose how the old background is found: Detect subject (then press Remove background) or By colour.
4. Check the preview, zooming in on the edges, and hold Hold for original to compare. Then download.

Once the background has been found you can switch between transparent, colour and image freely; the subject is not detected again.

• Detect subject uses the same open-source segmentation model as the AI Background Remover (IMG.LY background removal), running in your browser. It works on ordinary photos of people, animals and objects with any kind of background. The model files are downloaded the first time you use it and then cached by your browser. Fine hair, fur, glass and objects that blend into the background can come out imperfect.
• By colour works without a model and is more exact on plain backgrounds, such as products on a white sweep, logos on a solid fill or a person in front of a green screen. It cannot separate a subject from a busy background.

With By colour, the tool takes the most common colour along the image border as the background colour (the "key"), on the assumption that the border is background. Press Pick and click the image to choose a different spot; a 3 by 3 pixel area is averaged so JPEG noise does not decide the colour.

Each pixel is compared with the key using a colour distance weighted for how the eye sees red, green and blue, on a scale where black to white is 100. Pixels within the Tolerance (default 12) become fully transparent. Pixels slightly further away, within the Edge softness band (default 8), become partly transparent, which keeps edges smooth instead of jagged. Pixels right at the edge of the subject that blend its colour with the background are also made partly transparent, in proportion to how much background they contain, so anti-aliased outlines do not leave a halo. Setting Edge softness to 0 turns both off and gives hard edges, which suits pixel art.

By default only background that touches the image edge is removed: the tool starts at the border and spreads inwards through matching pixels, so the same colour inside the subject is kept. Tick Also remove enclosed areas to remove every matching pixel, for example the inside of a letter "O" in a logo. Remove the background colour from soft edges subtracts the old background from partly transparent edge pixels, so a cut-out does not keep a white or green outline.

The background picture is scaled so it covers the whole photo and is centred; whatever overflows is cropped, so it is never stretched or squashed. For the most natural result, pick a background with similar lighting and perspective to the subject. Until you choose a picture, the background stays transparent.

• PNG is lossless and keeps transparency. Use it for transparent results and for graphics.
• JPG gives small files for photos with a colour or picture background. It cannot store transparency, so it is not offered when the background is transparent.
• WebP gives small files and keeps transparency, but some older software cannot open it.

The image keeps its original size. Metadata such as EXIF and GPS location is not included.

Your photo and any background picture are processed in your browser and are not uploaded. Detect subject downloads the model files from IMG.LY's servers on first use, but your image stays on your device.