Background Remover

Remove the background and send a transparent PNG straight to the laser.

Background Remover strips the background out of a photo and produces a transparent PNG for engraving or cutting. Load an image, pick a removal engine and a cutout mode, and fine-tune tolerance, edge softness, and edge handling if needed. Original and result sit side by side; the finished image can be exported as a PNG, inserted into the Artboard, or sent straight to the laser or back to an image object in Laser Control.

Open tool See the feature

Load an image

The starting point — a source photo in the Original preview pane.

Upload image: Opens the file picker to choose a photo from the device and automatically starts the first removal with the currently selected engine.
Opened from Laser Control: When Background Remover is opened from Laser Control on an image object, the source image loads automatically from the handoff and the first removal starts immediately.Only appears when opened from Laser Control; if the source image is too large for the handoff, a notice to upload it manually appears instead.
Original: Shows the unedited source image in the left preview pane for comparison with the result.

Removal engine

Determines which engine removes the background — from fast local processing to a server-side premium engine for demanding subjects.

Removal engine: Chooses between Vextrify Cut Auto, Vextrify Cut Local, and Vextrify Cut Pro.
Vextrify Cut Auto: Default mode: tries Vextrify Cut Pro first and automatically falls back to the local mask for simple subjects if Cut Pro isn't available. Recommended when no technical engine choice is needed.
Vextrify Cut Local: Local, browser-based color and edge mask built from the detected background color. Runs instantly with no server round trip, suited to clear studio or product backgrounds.
Vextrify Cut Pro: Server-side removal for people, hair, clothing, products, and complex backgrounds where the local mask isn't accurate enough.
Engine description: Shows a description and "best for" guidance for the currently selected engine below the dropdown.
"Vextrify Cut Pro recommended" notice: Appears when the cutout mode "Portrait/hair soft" is active and Vextrify Cut Pro isn't selected — portrait and hair removal is blocked on the local engine.

Cutout mode & fine controls

Controls how the removal responds to the subject, and allows manual adjustment of tolerance, softness, and edge behavior.

Cutout mode: Chooses between Studio soft, Product clear, Portrait/hair soft, and Hard edge. Automatically adjusts tolerance, edge softness, edge cleanup, and feather for the subject.
Studio soft: Balanced default for general studio photos with a soft edge transition.
Product clear: Tighter tolerance and crisper edges for product photos with a clearly separated background.
Portrait/hair soft: Wider tolerance and stronger feathering for portrait and hair subjects; blocked on the local engine because the color mask can't perform true person matting.
Hard edge: Tightest tolerance, lowest softness, and strongest edge cleanup for technically sharp, high-contrast edges.
Tolerance: Sets how far a pixel's color may deviate from the detected background color and still be treated as background.
Edge softness: Controls the width of the transition band between visible and transparent at the subject's edge.
Edge cleanup: Smooths isolated mask errors: closes small transparent holes inside the subject and removes small opaque specks in the background.
Edge feather: Softens the mask further with an additional blur pass, for a gentler edge gradient.
Expand/shrink edge: Shifts the subject edge outward (positive) or inward (negative), to remove a leftover background fringe or recover an edge that was cut too tight.
Remove color fringe: Corrects discolored pixels at the edge of the cutout that are still tinted by the old background color (defringing).

Preview

Controls what's displayed in the right preview pane, independent of the actual export result.

Transparency grid: Toggles a checkerboard pattern behind the result on or off, to make transparent areas visible.
Preview: Chooses between Result, Mask, and Edge check as the view in the right preview pane.
Result: Shows the cut-out image with transparency, exactly as it will be exported.
Mask: Shows the alpha mask as a grayscale image: white = fully visible, black = fully transparent.
Edge check: Highlights the mask's transition band in color, to check edge quality and leftover artifacts before exporting.

Handoff & export

Four ways to reuse the cut-out result — depending on whether the tool was opened standalone or from Laser Control.

Apply & back to laser: Only visible when Background Remover was opened from Laser Control on an image object: sends the cut-out PNG back to that object and returns to Laser Control. Only enabled once a removal result with transparency exists.
Send to laser: Only visible in standalone use: opens a confirmation dialog and then inserts the cut-out image as a new object in Laser Control. Only enabled once a removal result with transparency exists.
Transparent PNG: Downloads the cut-out result as a PNG file with transparency; only enabled once an image has been loaded and processed.
Insert into Artboard: Standalone use only: inserts the cut-out PNG as a new image object, centered, into the active Artboard project (creating a new project if needed).

Common mistakes & fixes

Fine hair or fabric edges get cut off or look harsh.

Fix: Set cutout mode to "Portrait/hair soft" and select Vextrify Cut Pro as the engine — the local engine is blocked for portrait and hair removal because the plain color mask isn't accurate enough for it.

A light or dark fringe remains visible around the cut-out subject.

Fix: Set expand/shrink edge slightly negative to pull the edge inward, and increase remove color fringe to correct leftover background color at the edge.

The background doesn't become fully transparent, or only partially.

Fix: Increase tolerance so more background shades are recognized. For unevenly lit or textured backgrounds, Vextrify Cut Pro gives noticeably more reliable results than the local color mask.

Parts of the subject itself become transparent by mistake.

Fix: Lower tolerance so only shades close to the actual background color are removed. For subjects with colors close to the background (e.g. a white product on a light backdrop), try "Product clear" or "Hard edge" mode.

Vextrify Cut Pro returns an error or isn't available.

Fix: Switch the engine to Vextrify Cut Auto — for simple subjects it automatically falls back to the local mask. For portraits, local removal stays blocked until Vextrify Cut Pro is available again.

"Send to laser" or "Transparent PNG" stay disabled.

Fix: These actions only activate once an image has been loaded and successfully processed at least once. Check the status line at the bottom — it shows the image size and the engine used once a result is ready.

Not obvious

Vextrify Cut Auto is the sensible default: it uses the high-quality engine when available and automatically falls back to the fast local mask for simple subjects.
Use the "Mask" preview before exporting to quickly check that the alpha mask covers the subject cleanly from the inside out, without holes or stray islands.
The "Edge check" preview highlights exactly the transition band in color — useful for spotting noisy or ragged edges before exporting the PNG.
Expand/shrink edge has a strong effect in small steps; usually one or two steps are enough to remove a fringe or recover an edge that was cut too tight.
Changing the engine or any slider automatically reruns the removal with the new settings — there's no need to re-upload the image.
Images opened for editing from Laser Control automatically keep the original object's placement and size when sent back.