Remove backgrounds and select subjects in PhotoCraft

Yes, PhotoCraft removes backgrounds for free, offline and without an account. Select a pixel layer and click Remove Background under Quick Actions in the Properties panel. PhotoCraft finds the subject and hides everything else with a layer mask, so no pixels are deleted and you can repaint the mask. For more control, make a selection with Select › Subject, the Object Selection tool or Quick Selection, then refine it in Select › Select and Mask… (Ctrl+Alt+R, ⌘⌥R on macOS), which in v0.18.0 (31 October 2026) became Photoshop's full-window workspace (#8896). There's nothing optional to download. All of this runs on your own computer with classical image analysis, not AI. PhotoCraft v0.18.0 has no machine-learning models at all, as explained below.

Get PhotoCraft from the download page, or try the same tools in the browser with the online editor.

Remove Background in one click

Remove Background has been in PhotoCraft since v0.5.0. #734 added it as Layer › Remove Background, and #824, in the same release, made it a Quick Action like Photoshop's. It has no menu item.

1. Open the photo and select its layer in the Layers panel.
2. Open Window › Properties if the panel isn't showing.
3. In the panel's Quick Actions section, click Remove Background.

What it does, all as one undo step:

• Finds the subject with the same method as Select › Subject (below), looking at the selected layer's own pixels. On a layer that doesn't fill the canvas, it looks only where the layer has pixels.
• Refines the edge lightly: a 2 px Smart Radius, Smooth 10, Feather 0.5 px and Contrast 10%, so hair and soft edges get partial transparency instead of a hard cut.
• Adds a layer mask from the result. The layer's pixels stay as they were. A Background layer becomes a normal layer first, so it can be transparent.
• Deselects, leaving the mask for you to check.

It works on unlocked pixel layers only, and the button only shows for one. Rasterize a type, shape or smart object layer first, and turn off Lock image pixels or Lock all. If the layer already has a mask, the new one replaces it. When nothing stands out from the background, it stops with "no subject found" and changes nothing.

To fix the result, paint on the mask with black and white, or double-click the mask thumbnail to refine it in Select and Mask. The double-click opens Select and Mask by default; it's a setting in Edit › Preferences › Tools….

The method: classical segmentation

Upstream calls it "classical": no learned model, just published image-analysis methods. Select Subject breaks the image into superpixels, scores how much each one stands out from the frame (saliency), and uses that to seed GrabCut, a graph-cut segmentation. A second GrabCut pass recovers parts of the subject whose colour is close to the background, and the edge is then re-cut at full resolution. v0.18.0 makes those cuts faster with the Boykov-Kolmogorov solver (#9961).

Upstream's own source says it "works well for a distinct object on a comparatively plain background; it is not a semantic segmenter". A product shot, a portrait against a wall or a pet on a lawn usually works. A busy street, several people, or a subject the same colour as its background often doesn't, and then the tools below do better.

Which selection tool to use

Tool or command	Where	Best for
Remove Background	Properties › Quick Actions	One subject on a plain background, when you want a mask straight away
Select › Subject	Select menu, and the Select Subject button in the options bar of Object Selection, Quick Selection and the Magic Wand	The same detection as a selection, so you can add, subtract or refine before masking
Object Selection (W)	Toolbar	One object among several. Drag a rectangle around it. With Object Finder on (the default), resting the pointer highlights an object and a click selects it
Quick Selection (W)	Toolbar	Painting a selection that follows edges. Alt (⌥) subtracts. Enhance Edge smooths the edge as you go
Magic Wand (W)	Toolbar	Flat colour, such as a studio backdrop or a logo on white. Set Tolerance (default 32) and Contiguous, then invert the selection
Select › Color Range…	Select menu	A colour or tone across the whole image (sampled colours, reds, highlights, skin tones and so on), with Fuzziness
Select › Sky, Select › Focus Area…	Select menu	The sky, or the sharp part of a photo with a blurred background. Both are classical too

Shift+W cycles the three W tools; see the tools list and the shortcuts cheat sheet. The options bars of these tools have Sample All Layers. Without it, Select Subject and the others look at the selected layer only, and at the merged image when no pixel layer is selected (#5515). With Object Selection, Shift adds to the selection and Alt subtracts.

For a background that is one flat colour, two other tools can skip the selection step. Filter › Other › Color to Alpha… turns a chosen colour into transparency, which suits logos and scans on white. The Magic Eraser and Background Eraser (E) erase similar colours directly, but they delete pixels instead of masking them.

A good routine: run Select Subject or Remove Background first, fix the missed parts with Quick Selection or Object Selection (Shift adds, Alt subtracts), then refine the edge.

Refine the edge in Select and Mask

Select › Select and Mask… (Ctrl+Alt+R, ⌘⌥R) opens over the whole window. It needs a selection or a layer mask to start from. If there's no selection but the layer has a mask, or the mask is targeted, it refines the mask and outputs back to it. That's the usual follow-up to Remove Background. The Select and Mask… button also sits in the options bars of the marquee, lasso and Magic Wand tools, and in the Properties panel of a mask.

v0.18.0 replaced the earlier parameter dialog with Photoshop's layout (#8896): an options bar across the top, tools on the left, the document in the middle, and the Properties panel on the right. Everything you do in it is kept as a list of edits. OK applies them all as one history step, Cancel throws them away, and Ctrl+Z (⌘Z) inside the workspace undoes one edit at a time. The same workspace is in the online editor.

Tools

Tool	Key	What it does
Quick Selection	W	Paints the selection out to edges, as on the main canvas
Refine Edge Brush	R	Painting marks an area, such as hair, where transparency is worked out from the image. Painting with Subtract (or Alt) restores the original edge there
Brush	B	Paints the selection directly, with a Hardness setting
Object Selection	W	Drag a rectangle around an object, or click one with Object Finder
Lasso, Polygonal Lasso	L	Draw areas to add or subtract by hand
Hand, Zoom	H, Z	Move and zoom the view. Holding Space also pans

The options bar has Add and Subtract (Alt swaps them while held), Size for the brushes ([ and ] change it), Sample All Layers, and Select Subject. Refine Hair is there but greyed out, because PhotoCraft has no hair detection yet (#2671).

View Mode

Pick a view from the View list or press its letter. F cycles through them, and holding X shows the image without any view.

View	Key	Shows
Onion Skin	O	The selection over a see-through veil (Transparency 50% by default). The view it opens in
Marching Ants	M	The selection outline
Overlay	V	A coloured overlay (red, 50% opacity), on the masked areas or, with Indicates set to Selected Areas, on the selection
On Black	A	The cut-out on black. Good for spotting light fringes
On White	T	The cut-out on white. Good for spotting dark fringes
Black & White	K	The mask itself
On Layers	Y	The cut-out over the layers beneath it

Below the list: Show Edge (J) shows only the band that edge detection works on, and Show Original (P) shows the selection before refinement. Real-Time Refinement (on by default) updates the preview while you paint. High Quality Preview (off by default) previews at full size instead of on a copy at most 1,600 px on its longer side.

Refine Mode, Edge Detection and Global Refinements

• Refine Mode: only Color Aware works. Object Aware is greyed out, because it needs a segmentation model (#2788).
• Edge Detection: Radius (0 to 250 px) sets how wide a band around the edge is reconsidered. Smart Radius varies that width along the edge, tight on hard edges and wider on hair or fur.
• Global Refinements: Smooth (0 to 100) evens out a jagged outline, Feather (0 to 1,000 px) blurs the edge, Contrast (0 to 100%) sharpens a soft one, and Shift Edge (-100 to 100%) moves the whole edge in or out. Negative Shift Edge helps cut off a halo of background colour. Clear Selection and Invert are buttons here too.

Output Settings

Decontaminate Colors, with its Amount, replaces the background colour that bleeds into the subject's edge pixels with colour from nearby subject pixels. It needs new pixels, so it limits Output To to the new layer and new document targets.

Output To	Result
Selection	The refined selection, on the same layer. The default when you start from a selection
Layer Mask	A mask on the selected layer. The default when you start from a mask
New Layer	A copy of the layer with the background cut away. The original layer is hidden
New Layer With Mask	A copy of the layer with the refined mask. The original is hidden. Decontaminate Colors picks this
New Document	A new document of the same size, mode, bit depth and profile, holding the cut-out. The original document isn't touched
New Document With Mask	The same, with the cut-out as a masked layer

Remember Settings at the top keeps your settings for the next time. Without it, Select and Mask starts from its defaults each time (#9444). Reset returns to the defaults. Photoshop's Presets aren't there yet.

Keys inside the workspace

Key	Action
W, Shift+W	Quick Selection or Object Selection; Shift+W switches between them
R, B	Refine Edge Brush, Brush
L, Shift+L	Lasso or Polygonal Lasso; Shift+L switches between them
H, Z, Space	Hand, Zoom, pan while held
[, ]	Smaller or larger brush
Alt (⌥), held	Swap Add and Subtract
O M V A T K Y, F	Pick a view; cycle the views
X, held	Show the image without the view
J, P	Show Edge, Show Original
Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z (⌘Z, ⌘⇧Z)	Undo or redo one edit
Backspace or Delete	Remove the last point of a polygon being drawn
Enter	Close a polygon being drawn, otherwise OK
Esc	Drop a polygon being drawn, otherwise Cancel

On-device AI models: not in v0.18.0

PhotoCraft v0.18.0 has no AI selection or background removal, on-device or online. Select Subject, Object Selection and Remove Background all use the classical method above, in the desktop app, the command line and the online editor alike. There's no model to download, no setting to switch, and no build flag that adds one: the apps' only optional build feature in v0.18.0 is HEIC support. Edit › Preferences › AI Integrations… is about letting automation agents control the app, not about models.

You may read otherwise elsewhere. #1199 would have added two optional on-device models that run on the CPU, downloaded and chosen in Preferences: BiRefNet HR Matting for subject cut-outs and SAM 2.1 Large for box selection. GitHub shows it as merged, and the v0.17.0 release notes list it. But it was reverted on 25 October 2026, about an hour after it landed, before v0.17.0 was tagged. Neither v0.17.0 nor v0.18.0 contains the code. The reviewers' stated reason was that local models should probably come through a shared AI layer for all of the project's Craft apps instead of a PhotoCraft-only one. Upstream's scorecard still lists "Local ONNX models behind a flag, managed in Preferences" as missing in v0.18.0, with "No ONNX runtime dependency".

The PR did include an exploratory comparison on 20 photos, run against an older engine. In it, the classical Remove Background matched the reference subject with a mean IoU of 31.5%, against 51.5% for BiRefNet. The author calls it a selected pilot rather than a representative test, and the classical code has changed since, but it shows the size of the gap. If local models arrive in a later release, this page will say so.

Cleaning up the edge

• Hair and fur. Paint over the hair with the Refine Edge Brush, with Smart Radius on and a Radius of a few pixels, and check it in On Black and On White. There's no Refine Hair button yet, so the brush is the tool for it.
• Coloured fringes. Turn on Decontaminate Colors in Select and Mask. On a cut-out that's already a layer, use Layer › Matting: Color Decontaminate…, Defringe…, or Remove Black Matte and Remove White Matte for edges taken off black or white.
• A halo of old background. Try a small negative Shift Edge, or Contrast to firm up a soft edge.
• Missed areas. Paint on the mask: black hides, white reveals. Or add and subtract with Quick Selection in Select and Mask.
• Apply the mask with Layer › Layer Mask › Apply when you need the transparency baked into the pixels. Exports don't need it, because they apply the mask for you.

Saving with transparency

Format	Use it for	Notes
PNG	The usual cut-out	Transparency at 8 or 16 bits. File › Export › Quick Export as PNG is one click
WebP	Smaller files for the web	Keeps transparency, lossless by default or lossy with a quality. v0.18.0 also adds WebP to File › Export › Save for Web (Legacy)… (#6421)
TIFF	Print and archive	Keeps transparency, and the layers too if you choose a layered TIFF
PSD	More editing, here or in Photoshop	Keeps the layer and its mask, so the cut-out stays editable
.pcraft	More editing in PhotoCraft	Keeps everything
JPEG	Not for cut-outs	JPEG has no transparency

Use File › Save As… or File › Export › Export As… for any of them. Every format is compared in file formats.

Many images at once

Remove Background is an ordinary command (layer.removeBackground), so actions can record it and the command line can run it.

In the app. In the Actions panel (Window › Actions), record a new action, click Remove Background under Quick Actions, and stop recording. Then use File › Automate › Batch… with that action and PNG as the format. More in the actions guide.

From a terminal. One file:

photocraft-cli run photo.jpg --cmd layer.removeBackground --out photo-cutout.png

A whole folder takes an action list. A JSON file holding just the command id is enough:

# remove-bg.json
["layer.removeBackground"]

photocraft-cli batch --actions remove-bg.json --in photos --out cutouts --format png

batch creates the output folder, writes <name>.png for each image, and refuses an output folder that is the input folder. An image where no subject is found counts as failed, and the rest carry on. Check the results: the classical method does well on some photos and badly on others. Automation agents can call the same command over MCP; see MCP and CLI.

PhotoCraft can also play Photoshop .atn actions. Their Select Subject and Select and Mask steps are mapped to PhotoCraft's, but a Photoshop Remove Background step isn't, so record that action again in PhotoCraft.

Limits

Upstream's v0.18.0 scorecard and gap list say where this stands:

• No learned segmentation. Upstream's gap list includes "ML Select Subject/Sky" among the missing AI features, and the local-models row is missing. Select Subject and Remove Background are heuristics, so check every result.
• Select and Mask is partial on the scorecard: the workspace, the seven views, the Refine Edge Brush and the six outputs are done, but Refine Hair (#2671), Object Aware (#2788) and Presets are missing.
• Speed. Upstream's benchmark of a repeated Select Subject on a 24-megapixel photo measures 559 ms (median) against a 100 ms target, on a heavily loaded test machine. A first run on a large photo takes longer. In the online editor the work runs in the page itself, so the editor waits until it finishes.
• Color Range can't detect faces yet.
• Remove Background works only on unlocked pixel layers and replaces an existing mask.

The comparison with Photoshop, GIMP and Photopea covers the wider picture.

Generative fill

PhotoCraft has no generative fill or generative expand; upstream lists both as missing. For removing objects it has non-generative tools: the Remove tool (J) and Edit › Content-Aware Fill…, which rebuild an area from the rest of the photo. If you need AI generative fill, GenerativeFill.ai is a separate browser tool made by this site's maker.

Troubleshooting

Remove Background is missing from Quick Actions. The selected layer isn't a pixel layer, or its pixels are locked. Select the photo's layer, rasterize the layer, or turn off Lock image pixels or Lock all in the Layers panel.

"no subject found", or Select Subject does nothing. The background is too busy or too close to the subject's colours. Drag a rectangle with Object Selection, or paint with Quick Selection.

Select and Mask is greyed out. It needs a selection or a layer mask first.

The cut-out has a light or dark outline. Use Decontaminate Colors, a small negative Shift Edge, or Layer › Matting.

The exported image has a white background. It was saved as JPEG. Use PNG, WebP or TIFF.

More help is in Troubleshooting.