How do I remove a green screen from a photo?

Choose the picture, or drop it on the stage. The key starts at chroma green, 0, 177, 64, with an inner distance of 60 and an outer distance of 120, and the Eyedropper is the tool on the picture, so clicking the backdrop keys its exact color instead. The Checkerboard view shows what is now transparent and the Alpha view shows the mask in grey: black is removed, white is kept. Raise the inner distance if patches of backdrop remain, lower the outer distance if the subject's edges look too faint, then press PNG to save a transparent PNG at the picture's own width and height.

What do the inner and outer distances do?

They are straight RGB distances from the key color, from 0 up to 442 (the widest gap between two colors is about 441.7). A pixel at or beyond the outer distance keeps its alpha, a pixel closer than the inner distance becomes transparent, and between the two its alpha is the original times (distance minus inner) divided by (outer minus inner), rounded to a whole value with halves going up. With inner 60 and outer 120, a pixel 80 away keeps 85 of 255, one 100 away keeps 170, and a pixel 90 away with an original alpha of 200 keeps 100. The outer distance is at least 1, so the key color itself is always transparent, and setting inner and outer equal gives a hard edge: closer than that distance is transparent, that distance or more is kept.

What do the restore and erase brushes do?

They paint over the key's mask. Erase makes pixels transparent. Restore gives pixels back the alpha they had in the original picture, so a pixel that was already transparent in the file stays transparent: nothing the source did not hold comes back. The brush is 1 to 400 pixels across, and strokes stay in place when you change the key or the distances. Undo and Redo step through strokes and key changes one at a time, and Clear edits removes every stroke in one step that Undo can take back. From the keyboard, the arrow keys move a cursor on the picture and Enter uses the tool there.

Does it work with a blue screen or another backdrop color?

Yes. The key can be any color: click it with the Eyedropper, type it as three numbers such as 0, 71, 187 or as a hex code such as #0047BB, choose it with the color picker, or press Chroma blue. The distances work the same way whatever the key is.

Is this AI background removal?

No. It is a deterministic color key: the same picture and settings always give the same mask, and it knows nothing about what is in the picture. A part of the subject that is close to the key color, such as a green shirt in front of a green screen, is removed along with the backdrop, and the Restore brush brings it back. There is no face or object recognition, so it is not a tool for hiding people or text.

Can I get a white or solid background instead of transparency?

Set the backdrop color and tick Flatten the PNG onto the backdrop. The PNG is then composited onto that color with no transparency left, pixel for pixel what the Composite view shows, and its file name carries -on- and the color's hex code, such as studio-shot-on-ffffff.png. With the box unticked, the PNG stays transparent.

Is my photo uploaded, and how big can it be?

Nothing is uploaded: the picture is decoded, keyed and written as a PNG in this browser tab. It takes PNG, JPEG and WebP pictures up to 16 megapixels and 16,384 pixels on a side. The size is read from the file's header before anything is decoded, so a larger picture is refused with its dimensions instead of filling the tab's memory. The Settings button saves the key, the distances, the backdrop, the flatten choice and the brush size as a small file you can load later; the picture itself is never stored.

Green Screen Remover

Choose a PNG, JPEG or WebP picture up to 16 megapixels, pick the backdrop with the eyedropper or type its color, and every pixel is keyed by its straight RGB distance from that color: closer than the inner distance it becomes transparent, at or beyond the outer distance it keeps its alpha, and in between its alpha falls on a straight line, so a pixel halfway between keeps half. The arithmetic sits next to the picture, with the pixel under the cursor worked out, and there are four views: the original, the result on a checkerboard, the mask in grey and the result on a backdrop color. Where the key takes too much or too little, a restore brush gives pixels back their original alpha and an erase brush clears them, with undo and redo. You save a transparent PNG, the mask as a grey PNG, or a PNG flattened onto the backdrop color, plus a small settings file for keying the next picture the same way. It is a color key, not background detection, and the picture is read in your browser and never uploaded.

Remove a backdrop color from a picture

PNG, JPEG or WebP up to 16 megapixels. It is read in this browser and never uploaded.

Choose a picture

Key: 0, 177, 64
Inner to outer: 60 to 120
At the cursor: no pixel yet
Output: no picture yet

Edges: a pixel between the inner and outer distances keeps its own color and only loses alpha, so green spill on a subject's rim stays green-tinted in the PNG. This page does not recolor spill; raising the inner distance toward the outer one, or erasing the rim with the brush, removes more of it.

Exact key color, and a pixel 120 away0, 177, 64 and 72, 81, 64
the key gets alpha 0; at 120 or beyond the original alpha is kept
Pixel 90 away, original alpha 200halfway between 60 and 120
alpha 100, half the original, on the straight-line ramp
Already transparent pixel, then the restore brushoriginal alpha 0
stays at alpha 0: restore returns the original alpha and never invents hidden content
Inner 0 and outer 1, a hard key0, 177, 64 and 0, 178, 64
the key color gets alpha 0; a pixel 1 away keeps alpha 255

Common questions

How do I remove a green screen from a photo?: Choose the picture, or drop it on the stage. The key starts at chroma green, 0, 177, 64, with an inner distance of 60 and an outer distance of 120, and the Eyedropper is the tool on the picture, so clicking the backdrop keys its exact color instead. The Checkerboard view shows what is now transparent and the Alpha view shows the mask in grey: black is removed, white is kept. Raise the inner distance if patches of backdrop remain, lower the outer distance if the subject's edges look too faint, then press PNG to save a transparent PNG at the picture's own width and height.
What do the inner and outer distances do?: They are straight RGB distances from the key color, from 0 up to 442 (the widest gap between two colors is about 441.7). A pixel at or beyond the outer distance keeps its alpha, a pixel closer than the inner distance becomes transparent, and between the two its alpha is the original times (distance minus inner) divided by (outer minus inner), rounded to a whole value with halves going up. With inner 60 and outer 120, a pixel 80 away keeps 85 of 255, one 100 away keeps 170, and a pixel 90 away with an original alpha of 200 keeps 100. The outer distance is at least 1, so the key color itself is always transparent, and setting inner and outer equal gives a hard edge: closer than that distance is transparent, that distance or more is kept.
Why is there still a green edge around my subject?: Light bouncing off a green screen tints the subject's rim, and anti-aliased edge pixels are part backdrop. A pixel between the inner and outer distances keeps its own color and only loses alpha, so a green-tinted rim stays green-tinted in the PNG; this page does not recolor spill. Raising the inner distance toward the outer one removes more of the rim, and the Erase brush clears it by hand. The Composite view shows the result on the backdrop color you set, which makes a fringe easy to see.
What do the restore and erase brushes do?: They paint over the key's mask. Erase makes pixels transparent. Restore gives pixels back the alpha they had in the original picture, so a pixel that was already transparent in the file stays transparent: nothing the source did not hold comes back. The brush is 1 to 400 pixels across, and strokes stay in place when you change the key or the distances. Undo and Redo step through strokes and key changes one at a time, and Clear edits removes every stroke in one step that Undo can take back. From the keyboard, the arrow keys move a cursor on the picture and Enter uses the tool there.
Does it work with a blue screen or another backdrop color?: Yes. The key can be any color: click it with the Eyedropper, type it as three numbers such as 0, 71, 187 or as a hex code such as #0047BB, choose it with the color picker, or press Chroma blue. The distances work the same way whatever the key is.
Is this AI background removal?: No. It is a deterministic color key: the same picture and settings always give the same mask, and it knows nothing about what is in the picture. A part of the subject that is close to the key color, such as a green shirt in front of a green screen, is removed along with the backdrop, and the Restore brush brings it back. There is no face or object recognition, so it is not a tool for hiding people or text.
Can I get a white or solid background instead of transparency?: Set the backdrop color and tick Flatten the PNG onto the backdrop. The PNG is then composited onto that color with no transparency left, pixel for pixel what the Composite view shows, and its file name carries -on- and the color's hex code, such as studio-shot-on-ffffff.png. With the box unticked, the PNG stays transparent.
Is my photo uploaded, and how big can it be?: Nothing is uploaded: the picture is decoded, keyed and written as a PNG in this browser tab. It takes PNG, JPEG and WebP pictures up to 16 megapixels and 16,384 pixels on a side. The size is read from the file's header before anything is decoded, so a larger picture is refused with its dimensions instead of filling the tab's memory. The Settings button saves the key, the distances, the backdrop, the flatten choice and the brush size as a small file you can load later; the picture itself is never stored.

A deterministic color key, not background detection: the key color becomes transparent, and so does any pixel closer to it than the inner RGB distance; a pixel at or beyond the outer distance keeps its alpha, and one in between fades on a straight line, rounded to a whole 8-bit value. Foreground close to the key color can be removed and uneven lighting can leave a fringe, which the alpha view shows and the restore and erase brushes correct by hand. The transparent PNG keeps the picture's size, its existing transparency and the colors this browser decodes, recovers no detail the source never held, and there is no face or object recognition, so it is not a redaction tool.