Remove White Background
Make the white around a logo, scan or drawing transparent. Colour mode runs in your browser with no credits; AI mode handles photos with shadows.
- Full resolution
- Transparent PNG
- Credit cost shown first
- Never used to train AI
Remove background
How to remove a white background
To remove a white background from an image, add it above and choose how: Colour mode deletes the white itself and runs in your browser at no credit cost, while AI mode cuts out the subject the way the main background remover does. For scans, line art and logos on white, Colour mode is usually all you need.
- Add your image: JPG, PNG or a scan.
- Pick Colour mode (white is preselected) or AI mode.
- Adjust the tolerance until the paper disappears but the subject stays.
- Download as PNG to keep the transparency.
Colour mode or AI mode?
| Colour mode | AI mode | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Removes pixels close to white | Finds the subject and removes everything else |
| Best for | Scans, logos, line drawings, text, signatures | Photos on white with shadows, people, products |
| White inside the subject | Kept or removed, your choice | Kept if it belongs to the subject |
| Where it runs | In your browser | On our servers |
| Cost | Free, in your browser | Free, in your browser |
If Colour mode leaves a shadow or grey patches behind a product photo, switch to AI mode; shadows aren’t white, so a colour rule can’t remove them cleanly.
Getting the tolerance right
“White” in a photo or scan is rarely pure white. Paper looks slightly grey, cream or blue depending on light and scanner. Tolerance sets how far from pure white a pixel can be and still be removed:
- Too low: patches of off-white paper remain, especially near corners and folds.
- Too high: light parts of the subject start to vanish, such as pale colours, thin pencil lines and highlights.
- Just right: the paper is gone and the subject’s lightest details are still there. Check on the dark preview background, where leftovers are easy to spot.
White inside letters and shapes
Letters such as O, A and e have white “holes”, and logos often have white details. Colour mode gives you two choices:
| Setting | Result | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Remove all white | Every near-white pixel becomes transparent, including holes in letters | Text, signatures and logos that should show the background through |
| Remove outer white only | Only white connected to the image edge is removed; white details inside the subject stay | Logos with white elements, drawings with white fills |
Avoiding white halos
Edges in an image blend gradually from the subject’s colour into white. When the white is removed, those blended pixels can leave a faint light outline, which is very visible on dark backgrounds. ToolsMotive softens the edge pixels into transparency to reduce this. To check, switch the preview to a dark background; if a halo remains, raise the tolerance slightly or use the Erase brush along the edge.
Removing other plain colours
Colour mode isn’t limited to white. Tick “remove this colour” and choose the background colour, such as a light grey studio backdrop, a green screen or a yellow sticky note, and that colour is removed with the same tolerance control. For backgrounds with a gradient or texture, AI mode usually gives a cleaner result because there’s no single colour to remove.
Example: a scanned pencil drawing
Scan the drawing in grayscale and add it here. Keep Colour mode on white and “remove all white”, then raise the tolerance slowly while watching the dark preview: stop as soon as the paper texture disappears. If faint pencil lines start to fade, step back one notch, or darken the lines first by asking “make the lines darker, then remove the white”. Download as PNG and the drawing is ready for colouring in any design app.
Common jobs
- A logo from a white document or letterhead: see remove background from a logo.
- A signature on paper: see the signature background remover.
- Hand-drawn sketches and line art for digital colouring: Colour mode with “remove all white”.
- Product photos on a white sweep: AI mode, because of the soft shadows.
- Screenshots of diagrams to place on slides: Colour mode, then check light lines.
Just describe it
- “Remove the white background from this sketch but keep the pencil lines.”
- “Make the white around this logo transparent, keep the white inside it.”
- “Remove the white background from these 20 icons.”
Remove white background: questions and answers
How do I remove a white background from an image?
Add it above, keep Colour mode with white selected, adjust the tolerance and download as PNG.
Is removing a white background free?
Yes. Colour mode and AI mode both run in your browser, free, with no credits and no upload.
Why are there grey patches left?
The paper wasn’t pure white. Raise the tolerance a little, or use AI mode for photos with shadows.
How do I keep white parts of my logo?
Choose “Remove outer white only”, so white inside the logo stays.
Why does my image have a white outline on dark backgrounds?
Edge pixels were blended with white. Raise the tolerance slightly or erase along the edge, then check on the dark preview.
Which format keeps the transparency?
PNG. JPG can’t store transparency and would fill it with a colour.