A background can be removed from a photo in a few seconds without Photoshop. Here is how to do it in your browser, and how to get clean edges on product photos and portraits.
When you need a transparent background
Online shops usually want products on plain white. A profile picture looks tidier on a single color. A logo has to sit on top of other designs without a white box around it. In each case the job is the same: keep the subject, remove everything behind it, and save the result as a PNG, because PNG is the common format that can store transparency.
The manual way and the automatic way
In a desktop editor you would trace the subject with a pen or lasso tool and delete the rest. It works, but one image can take twenty minutes, and hair is hard to get right. Automatic tools use a model trained to tell a subject from its surroundings, and they finish in seconds. The Remove Background tool on ImageEditify runs that model inside your browser, so the photo is not uploaded anywhere.
Remove a background in three steps
Open the Remove Background tool and upload your picture. Press the Remove Background button and wait while the cutout is calculated; the first run is slower because the model has to be downloaded. When the checkerboard pattern appears behind your subject, download the image as PNG. A JPG download would fill the transparent area with white.
Flat backgrounds: use Color Key
For a logo on white, a signature on paper or a studio shot on a single color, switch to the Color Key tab. Click the background on the image to pick its color, raise the tolerance until the whole background disappears, and apply. This is faster than the AI cutout and gives very sharp edges on graphics.
Tips for clean edges
Start with a sharp, well-lit photo in which the subject does not blend into the background. Avoid heavy shadows across the edge of the subject. If a little background is left in one corner, crop it out afterwards. For product photos, shoot against a wall or sheet in a color that does not appear in the product.