Remove a Solid Background Color of an Image in PowerPoint

This article teaches you how to remove a solid-colored background from an image in PowerPoint. This is useful for stock images that have white or black backgrounds, but you won't be able to remove non-solid backgrounds from images.

10 Second Summary

1. Open a new or existing document in PowerPoint.
2. Click and drag an image into PowerPoint.
3. Select your image and click Format.
4. Click Remove Background.
5. Select areas to delete.
6. Click Keep Changes.

Steps

1. Open PowerPoint. It's an orange icon with a white "P" on it.
   • You can also double-click an existing PowerPoint document to open it.
2. Click Blank Presentation. This will create a new PowerPoint document in which you can place your photo.
3. Click and drag an image into PowerPoint. Dropping your image into PowerPoint will place it on top of anything currently in the document.
   • Alternatively, you can click Insert at the top-left side of the PowerPoint window, click Pictures, and select a picture.
4. Resize your image if needed. To do so, click and drag a white circle in one of the corners of the image. Dragging the circle in toward the photo will shrink the image, while dragging it away will increase the image's size.
   • Enlarging your image past its optimal size will reduce its quality.
5. Click the picture to select it, then click Format. This tab is near the top-center section of the PowerPoint window.
6. Click Remove Background. It's on the far-left side of the window, above the section where your PowerPoint slides appear.
7. Resize the square box to cover your image. You'll need to click and drag the box's corners outward to encompass the whole image and its background.
8. Mark other parts of your image for deletion or for preservation. Anything on your image that will be deleted is marked in pink; if you see a piece of the image that needs to be deleted but isn't pink (or vice versa), click Mark Areas to Delete or Mark Areas to Keep in the left side of the PowerPoint toolbar, then click the offending area.
   • If your image has sections that are the same color as its background, they will likely turn pink in preparation for deletion. Marking these as "Keep" will prevent them from being deleted.
9. Click Keep Changes to delete the selected areas. Your image's background should now be gone, along with any other marked areas.
   • You can also click Discard All Changes to start over.

Tips

• You can avoid having to remove the background of images by using clip art, which generally lacks backgrounds and is free-to-use.

Warnings

• PowerPoint's image removal tool isn't perfect. If your image's background won't disappear completely, you may need to use Photoshop or a similar service to edit the photo.

Related Articles

• Add Animation Effects in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Put a Hyperlink in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Embed Music in a PowerPoint Presentation
• Create Less Annoying Powerpoints
• Change the Background on PowerPoint Slides
• Change an Image Background in MS Paint (Green Screen)
• Remove Background With Photoshop Elements
• Remove a Background from the Desktop Background List

See also

• Add a PowerPoint File to a Blog
• Create Less Annoying Powerpoints
• Make a PowerPoint Presentation with Lots of Bitmap Images and Small File Size
• Create an Effective PowerPoint
• Make a Powerpoint Template
• Create a PowerPoint Presentation
• Use Microsoft Office PowerPoint
• Fix a Corrupted PowerPoint PPTX File
• Create a Powerpoint Handout
• Add Background Graphics to Powerpoint

Read more ...