In this comprehensive guide on how to make a transparent background for your images, we’ll give an overview of transparent PNGs and how to make an image/logo background transparent with Canva, Adobe Photoshop, and Fiverr.
Skip ahead with these quick links:
- What is a Transparent PNG background?
- PNG vs JPG vs GIF
- What tools can you use to make a transparent PNG?
- Make Your Background Transparent Using Canva
- Make Your Background Transparent Using Adobe Photoshop
- Make Your Background Transparent Using Fiverr
- Best Image Editing Programs
What Is a Transparent PNG Background?
A PNG is an image file type that allows you to have no background color. Most images cover a certain number of pixels and have color in all of those pixels, even if that color is white. A transparent background has nothing in the background pixels, allowing what’s behind it to show through.
In this screenshot, you can see that the header with the “Emergency Chapter Housing Campaign” logo has used an image with a transparent background because the blue behind it is showing through.
In contrast, you can see here a logo with a white background:
The white box behind the logo itself is the background. It looks unprofessional and messy and can clash with the background color of websites, brochures, or other designs.
Whether you have a website for your freelance work, small business, or nonprofit, you’ll want to ensure that your logo looks good on any page.
When you make your logo’s background transparent, you can be confident that it will look professional wherever it’s displayed (whether that’s 3rd-party websites, social media, or your own site).
Unless you want to change the colors on your site, you need to make a PNG with a transparent background that seamlessly integrates with your page and designs.
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PNG vs JPG vs GIF
A PNG is only one type of image format that you can use on your website, and it may not be the one that you’re most familiar with. However, it’s definitely useful and you should probably familiarize yourself with it. Let’s look at some of the image options.
JPGs are a common choice for images on websites because they have a relatively small file size. This helps your website to load faster (which is especially good for SEO). However, JPGs don’t support transparent backgrounds, and when they are compressed they lose image quality.
So if you were to delete the background of your image (as we’ll explore in the following section), and then save that image as a JPG, the transparent background will actually show up as solid white or solid black.
PNGs are a better choice when you need a transparent image or want something with incredibly crisp, clear lines (like a line drawing or other iconic graphics).
Another option is a GIF. GIF files can have transparent backgrounds, however, there are some benefits to using a PNG over a GIF. PNGs have better compression, so the image size is smaller. In addition, GIFs only allow one color to be specified as transparent, while PNGs have better transparency options.
Each file type has specific use cases, and all of them are essential for following good graphic design and web design best practices.
JPGs should be used for the majority of basic online images that don’t require high contrast. PNGs should be used for any images that require a transparent background or need high contrast. GIFs should be used for animated images.
One thing to note about PNGs is that there are a few different types of PNG files. These include palette-based, grayscale, and RGB. You will generally want to use an RGB format with transparency. This ensures that your image will be in full color and gives the option of full transparency.
Note: For websites, you can also save an image as WebP, a format that has the transparent background feature supported in a PNG at a much smaller file size. You’ll want to convert the image from WebP to PNG first.
What tools can you use to create a transparent background?
The go-to tool for editing transparent PNGs (and the industry standard for pretty much all photo editing) is Adobe Photoshop, but it’s not the only tool out there. We’ll be looking at these three programs, all of which have the ability to make an image background transparent:
Let’s take a look.
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Make Your Background Transparent Using Canva
Canva is a free program that you can use through an internet browser. You’ll need to begin by making an account with Canva. This lets you save your designs and come back to them later.
The transparent background removal feature is only available in their Pro plan, which is $12.99/month. It comes with a 30 day free trial though so you can get remove as many backgrounds as you want in a month for free!
Deep Dive: You can learn some tips and tricks of using Canva in this book.
Step 1. Create a design
When you click on the “create a design” button, you’ll have options of the size you want to create. You can use any dimensions, but I would recommend looking at the dimensions of your logo and using those.
Once you’ve created your design you’ll see a screen that looks like this:
Step 2. Upload image
You simply have to drag and drop your logo into the left-hand panel and it will begin uploading. You’ll see its progress in the “Uploads” tab.
Once it’s finished uploading, click on it to add it to your design.
You can change the size to fit the space as you see fit.
Note: We added a colored background so that I could see when my background disappeared.
Step 3. Remove background image
Click on the image you’ve added to your design. You’ll see a number of menus appear, including “Effects”. Choose effects. The first option you see will be “Background Remover”.
Click it and you’re all set! Easy!
Before:
After:
Tip: You can add a colored background to double-check that it has worked, but make sure you remove it before you save the image by clicking the background and pressing delete.
Step 4. Download image
Select download in the upper-righthand corner. You’ll see this menu:
Make sure that your file type is PNG, and that you’ve checked the box that says “transparent background”. Then click download!
Full video walkthrough
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Make Your Background Transparent Using Adobe Photoshop
If you have a logo with colored background, you must first make the background transparent. Then you can convert the file format into PNG, which is the file format designed for transferring images onto the internet. Here’s how to do it on Adobe Photoshop.
Deep Dive: You can learn all the ins and outs of Photoshop in this book.
Step 1. Open Logo File
Step 2. Add A Transparent Layer
Select “Layer” > “New Layer” from the menu (or just click on the square icon in the layers window).
The new layer should automatically be transparent.
Drag this new layer below your image’s layer and select your content layer.
Step 3. Delete the background
Using the magic wand or lasso tool, select the area of the image you want to be transparent. Use a tolerance setting of 32, or also experiment with different settings to get the result you want.
Hit the Delete button. The selected area will be removed and replaced by a grey and white checkered background (the sign that you now have a transparent background).
If you have circles or any shapes in your logo that are not connected, you may need to repeat the selection and deletion process on those other areas of your logo (as you can see, I need to delete the background from the outside of my logo image and from within the circle as well).
Step 4. Save As A Transparent PNG Image
Click “File” -> “Save As”. Select “PNG (*.PNG) as the file format. Note that though a transparent background looks checkered in Photoshop, it will actually be transparent in the final PNG file. Now you can upload this logo with a transparent background onto your website!
Tip: You might need to go to “Mode” -> “RBG Color” to change your image’s color format into RBG, which supports transparency.
Video walkthrough:
Make Your Background Transparent Using Fiverr
Fiverr is a marketplace where you can find people to do small gigs for you. One of these gigs includes making your logo background transparent or removing background images from your photos.
We’ve used this service before and they typically turn around the project within 1 day (sometimes faster), including revisions, and it costs around $5 or less per image.
If you’re short on time or need to create a transparent background for just a few images, this is a great alternative to get professional results in less time and effort.
Step 1. Go to Fiverr’s Logo Gigs
Here’s the link to go to the main logo gig page. You’ll see a listing of people offering to remove the background from your image or make your PNG transparent.
Step 2. Select a Gig
These gigs start out at $5 USD for 1 image. Many people offer up to 5 or 10 images at just $5, so be sure to browse around for the right price and service.
We recommend choosing someone that has a 4.9 out of 5.0 rating or higher with unlimited revisions and 5 images. Under an hour delivery is common so look out for a quick turnaround.
Step 3. Purchase Fiverr Service
After you find someone that has good reviews, fast turnaround, and the right service, you can easily purchase the service by checking out.
Fiverr does charge a service fee now (new this year), so budget in that extra amount. For example, this $5 gig has a $2.25 service fee!
After you purchase, just send in you image file (high resolution recommended) and any instructions. We recommend being as specific as possible so the gig gets done right.
Check out Fiverr’s logo gigs here.
More Applications for Creating a Transparent Background
There are several ways to create a transparent background for your logo images. Here’s a summary of some more tools and software to get the job done.
When using mobile editing apps and tools don’t forget to take note of the file size and ensure that the quality of your logo still remains high for publishing on desktop sites.
- Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard in any type of image editing. Creating transparent backgrounds is just scratching the surface (and may be overkill if that’s all you need to do). Photoshop comes with a free trial and month-to-month plans.
- Canva is a super easy-to-use online editing tool, helping you create beautiful designs without complexity. We liken it to a lightweight online version of Adobe Photoshop, and an easy way to make your image background transparent right from the browser.
- Snappa is a quick online tool to help you create online graphics for social media, ads, blogs, and much more. It’s free, and like Canva, an easy way to make a transparent background for your images.
- Lumina is a desktop application (Mac and PC) that ties in traditional image editing with AI technologies. In your images, you can erase objects, change the color of the sky, and much more automatically.
- InPixio is a desktop application (Mac and PC) that is designed to help you remove unwanted objects in images. Check this one out since they have English, French, German, and Spanish support.
- Background eraser: superimpose is a mobile app that can be downloaded for free for iOS users. You can just touch the areas of the screen where you want to make the background transparent, and then export your image as a PNG file. It’s so easy!
- Ultimate Background Eraser is a similar app to Background Remover, but this one is for Google Play/Android users.
