Remove Photo Background and Add White or Blue Behind It
Cut the subject out with an AI model that runs on your device, fix the edges by hand, pick a new background
Drop an image here
JPG, PNG or WebP (works best with a clear subject)
How the background gets removed
Four steps, all on your own device.
- 01
Upload a photo
JPG, PNG or WebP. A clear subject with some contrast against its surroundings works best.
- 02
AI finds the subject
An on-device segmentation model decides, pixel by pixel, what is subject and what is background. Nothing is uploaded.
- 03
Fix the edges
Restore anything the AI cut away by mistake, or erase what it missed. Use Compare to check against the original.
- 04
Pick a background, download
Keep it transparent, or add a plain colour, a gradient or your own photo. Download as PNG.
Runs entirely on your device using an on-device AI model, so your photo is never uploaded anywhere. The first use downloads the model (a few tens of MB, then cached by your browser), so it's slower the first time and much faster after that.
About this tool
Many application forms ask for a photograph against a plain, light background, and Passport Seva asks for white. A photo taken at home in front of a cupboard, a curtain or a painted wall fails that check. Reshooting is not always possible, and a studio charges for a two-minute background swap.
This tool separates the person, or the object, from whatever is behind them using a segmentation model that runs inside your browser, then lets you put a plain colour, a gradient or your own photo behind the cutout, or leave it transparent. A Restore and Erase brush fixes what the model gets wrong, and a Compare slider shows the original next to the result.
Nothing is uploaded. The first use downloads the model files once, a few tens of megabytes, and the browser keeps them cached after that.
How to remove a background and add a new one
- Click or drop the photo. JPG, PNG and WebP open, and a clear subject with some contrast against its surroundings works best.
- Wait while the model finds the subject. On the first run a percentage shows the model download; later runs skip it.
- Check the cutout in Edit view, then switch to Compare and drag the handle to see the original underneath.
- Fix the edges with the brush. Restore paints back what was wrongly removed, Erase removes background that was left behind, Undo steps back, and Reset to AI returns to the automatic result.
- Choose a background in the panel: Transparent, Colour, Gradient or Photo.
- Download. The file is a PNG named with -no-bg or -new-bg before the extension.
Background options
For an application form, pick Colour and then White, or the light blue if the notification asks for blue. Passport Seva's photo guidance is a white background. The red and the stronger blue are there for ID cards and forms that specify a coloured background; read the notification before choosing, since a wrong colour is as much a rejection as a cluttered one.
Gradient and Photo are for profile pictures, product listings and presentations rather than government forms.
| Tab | Choices | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Transparent | See-through PNG, shown over a chequerboard | name-no-bg.png with transparency |
| Colour | White, Light grey, Passport blue, Red, Sky, Green, Yellow, Orange, Violet, Black, or any custom colour | name-new-bg.png with the colour baked in |
| Gradient | Royal, Ocean, Sunset, Mint, Lavender, Graphite, each a diagonal two-tone blend | name-new-bg.png |
| Photo | Any image from your device, scaled to fill the frame and cropped evenly on the overflow | name-new-bg.png |
Brush, undo and compare
The brush runs from 8 to 100 px on the working canvas and starts at 30. Restore copies the original pixels back under the stroke; Erase makes them transparent. Strokes are continuous even when you move fast, because the tool fills in between pointer positions. Undo holds the last 15 strokes, and Reset to AI discards all hand edits in one step while keeping an undo of that too.
Painting only works in Edit view. Compare locks the brush and overlays the original photo with a draggable split, which is the quickest way to spot a missing ear, a cut fingertip, or a strip of wall left beside the shoulder. Use a small brush along hair and spectacle frames and a large one for open areas.
Working size and the PNG you get
The tool works on a copy of the photo capped at 1400 px on the longest side, which keeps the brush responsive on a phone. The download is that working size, never larger. Hypothetical: a 3024 × 4032 px portrait is scaled by 1400 ÷ 4032 = 0.3472, giving a 1050 × 1400 px PNG. A photo already under 1400 px is used as it is.
The output is always PNG, and a PNG of a photograph is large, often over 1 MB at 1400 px. Portals want a JPG under 50 KB at a size like 413 × 531 px. So the usual sequence for a form photo is this tool with a white background, then the image resizer with the Passport preset, JPG and the 50 KB limit. If you kept the background transparent, converting to JPG fills it with white or the colour you pick there.
| Step | Tool | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Remove background, Colour, White | 1050 × 1400 px PNG, white behind the subject |
| 2 | Resize Image, Passport 3.5 × 4.5 cm, JPG, 50 KB limit | 413 × 531 px JPG under 50 KB |
| 3 | Upload | A photo that passes the background, size and format checks |
Accuracy and limits
The cutout comes from the open-source @imgly/background-removal library, which runs its model in the browser rather than on a server. It is reliable on a single person or object against a reasonably distinct background. It struggles with loose strands of hair, the edge of a dupatta against a similar wall, clear spectacles, glass and anything the camera blurred. Those spots are what the brush is for.
The first run on a device downloads the model, which is slow on mobile data and worth doing on Wi-Fi. Later runs start from cache. Very old phones and browsers without WebAssembly may not finish; a laptop is the safer choice for a batch of family photos. One image is processed at a time; there is no multi-file mode.
The brush, undo and background controls appear only after the model has finished. If the result panel shows an error, the browser could not decode the file or ran out of memory; try a smaller copy of the photo.
Frequently asked questions
›How do I make my photo background white for a government form?
Open the photo, wait for the cutout, switch to Compare to check the outline, and fix any gaps with Restore or Erase. Then choose Colour and the White swatch, and download the PNG. Finish in the image resizer with the preset the form names and the JPG format, since most forms will not accept a PNG. Keep the face centred and look at the shoulders, where cutouts most often lose a strip.
›How do I change the photo background to blue or red?
After the cutout is ready, open the Colour tab and pick the Passport blue, Sky or Red swatch, or set any exact shade with the custom picker, which accepts a hex value from a notification if one is given. The preview updates instantly and the download has the colour baked in. Check the notice first; most Indian exam forms want white or a light colour rather than a strong blue.
›Can I remove the background from a signature?
Sometimes. The model is trained on people and objects, so thin pen strokes on paper are not what it expects, and parts of a signature can be dropped. Try it, and use Restore with a small brush to bring strokes back. A cleaner route for a signature is to scan it on white paper with good light, which gives a white background without any cutout at all.
›Why is the downloaded file a PNG and so large?
PNG is the only common format that can hold transparency, and it is lossless, so a 1400 px photograph can be more than 1 MB. That is expected. The file is meant to be the clean master; run it through the resizer or the JPG converter to get the small JPG a portal wants. A transparent PNG turns white on conversion unless you pick another colour there.
›Does it work on mobile data or offline?
The first run needs a download of the model files, a few tens of MB, so do that on Wi-Fi if data is limited. The browser caches them, and later runs on the same device and browser do not download again. The processing itself never contacts a server, so once the model is cached the tool works with a weak connection.
›The edges around hair look rough. What can I do?
Set the brush to its smallest size, select Restore, and trace along the hairline to bring back strands the model cut; switch to Erase for background it left between strands. Zooming the browser page in makes small strokes easier. Hair against a wall of a similar colour is the hardest case, and a reshoot against a contrasting plain wall often takes less time than correcting it.
›Can I use my own photo as the background?
Yes. Open the Photo tab, upload any image from your device, and it is scaled to fill the frame behind the subject and cropped evenly where its shape differs. The download bakes it in as a PNG. This suits a profile picture or a product image; it is not for an application form, which expects a plain background.