Build a clean alpha channel in the browser. Pick a removal mode, nudge tolerance, then paint stray pixels on the cutout canvas until the outline looks right.
Add a photo
Tap here, or drop a JPG, PNG, or WebP. Everything stays on your device.
Removal mode
Tolerance
Edge smoothing passes
Brush
Cutout
Flat studio backdrops cooperate. Busy scenes, glass, smoke, or hair against foliage fight every heuristic.
Color mode samples corners, then deletes similar tones. If your subject wears the same tone as the wall, part of the subject disappears. Edge mode looks for gradients, then guesses bright flats as background. Contrast mode kills low-detail patches, which sometimes includes soft shadows you wanted to keep.
We treat those failures as normal. Switch modes, lower tolerance, or paint with restore until the mask matches what you expect.
The tool keeps a parallel mask array: one byte per pixel, keep or discard. Auto modes only edit that mask. Smoothing runs a small blur across the mask before the alpha channel updates, which reduces stair-steps on hard edges.
Export uses PNG because JPEG has no transparency. If you need a smaller file for the web, run the PNG through your own optimizer after you finish editing.
| Scene | Start here | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| White cyclorama product shot | Color | White labels or packaging |
| Subject pops off a dark card | Edge | Thin lines along rim light |
| Soft gradient sky | Contrast | Low contrast clothing blends |
| You already know what to delete | Manual | Slower, exact control |
For palette work after export, try Color Extractor to sample brand colors from the isolated subject.
The percentage labeled smooth score is a stand-in for how aggressively you asked the mask to blur before applying alpha. Higher smoothing averages neighbor mask values, which hides jagged removal but also eats fine strands.
Do not read the number as a lab grade. Use your eyes instead. Switch the backdrop to black, zoom on your phone, look for grey fringe. If fringe appears, drop smoothing, rerun removal, paint refine along the outline only where fuzz shows up.
Heavy browsers on older phones spend longer per brush stroke because each edit recomputes the whole canvas. Work at modest resolution first, download, then upscale outside this page if print demands more pixels.
Leaving anti-aliased halos: the subject looks fine on checkerboard, then glows on a navy hero. Toggle the blue swatch before you ship.
Smoothing set too high: fine text or lace turns mushy. Drop smoothing to zero, rerun, paint refine locally instead.
Downloading before reset testing: keep the source tab handy, flip between Source and Cutout on your phone to confirm you did not erase part of a logo.
Last reviewed: March 2026. Processing stays client-side. Results depend on your photo.
Short answers about modes, files, and limits.
Color mode compares each pixel to an average of the corners. Clothing or props that match the backdrop get marked as background. Switch to edge or contrast, lower tolerance, or restore with the brush.
No. You get fast browser cutouts for simple jobs. Fine animal fur, motion blur, or translucent glass usually needs heavier software or manual rotoscoping.
PNG keeps the alpha channel. JPEG will flatten transparency, so avoid JPEG for this workflow unless you composite elsewhere first.
Huge photos allocate big canvases. If the tab slows down, resize the source image elsewhere, then return. The tool caps display scale but still processes each pixel you load.
No server round trip occurs for the cutout. The browser reads the file you selected. Clear downloads or cache on shared devices if the asset is sensitive.
