A cut-out photo can be saved with a transparent background or with a flat colour behind the subject. The two are different file types with different uses. This guide explains the choice, how PicRemedy makes the cut-out in your browser and where the edge is only approximate.
Transparent PNG
A PNG can carry an alpha channel, a fourth value per pixel that says how opaque the pixel is. Where the background was removed the alpha is zero, and whatever sits behind the image shows through. JPEG has no alpha channel.
That is what a design tool, a sticker or a product-style layout needs, because the picture can then be placed on any colour. PicRemedy saves transparent output as a PNG.
White or black instead
The flat options are white and black. PicRemedy flattens the cut-out onto the colour and saves it as a JPEG. A flat colour leaves no transparency to lose, so the smaller JPEG costs nothing in that respect.
Choose a flat colour when the destination wants an ordinary photo file, such as a document or an ID-style photo. Check the destination's own rules for size and background colour. PicRemedy does not certify a photo for any official use.
Make the choice before you run the queue.
How the cut-out is made
- The photo is drawn into a 256 by 256 canvas in your tab. The model returns one mask value for each pixel of that square.
- If the subject fills less than three quarters of the frame, a second pass runs on the subject's own crop. This puts more mask detail where the edge actually is.
- The mask is scaled up and refined against your photo's own brightness. This pulls the boundary back onto real edges.
- The result is composed at the source's exact pixel dimensions and encoded locally, as PNG for transparency and as JPEG for a flat colour.
Everything happens in the tab. The site has no image endpoint, so there is nothing to upload to.
What the edge looks like
The mask is 256 by 256 pixels before refinement. Single strands of hair, thin straps, chain-link fences seen through a gap and other fine detail stay approximate. A flat background can make a soft edge less noticeable than transparency placed over a contrasting colour.
A transparent result placed over a very different colour makes a soft edge easier to notice. Compare at full size with the slider before you use it.
What it works on
The model is trained to separate people from their background. If it finds no person in a photo, PicRemedy refuses it with a message instead of cutting out an object. No measurement covers other subjects.
The model produces one foreground mask for the whole person. PicRemedy computes no facial landmark, face geometry or face template. The licenses page explains why the models usually recommended for objects were not used.
Cost and speed
The first run downloads about 3.9 MB compressed: a 447 KB model plus the inference engine the site already uses. The browser may keep both, so later visits can reuse them.
The model runs at a fixed 256 by 256 whatever the photo measures, so the mask costs the same for a small photo and a large one. The work that grows with the photo is composing the result at full resolution.
A recorded test used a 900 by 675 photograph of two people. The mask took 14 ms in Chromium, 16 ms in WebKit, 15 ms in a mobile WebKit profile and 283 ms in Firefox. That was one Apple-silicon laptop with the files served locally. Your device may differ.
Limits of the queue
One queue holds up to ten photos of at most 30 MB each, processed one at a time. Photos above the session pixel ceiling are refused. A photo that fails does not stop the rest, and Stop ends the run after the image being worked on. Saved files keep the source pixel dimensions, with no watermark.
A short checklist
- Decide first: transparent PNG for layouts, white or black for documents.
- Add photos of people, up to ten.
- Compare each result with the slider at full size.
- Save only the cut-outs whose edges you accept.
The tool itself is on the background remover page.