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Clean up your profile picture

Remove the kitchen, the car seat or the conference crowd behind you and put your face on a plain color that reads well in a small circle.

Drop a photo here

From your gallery or camera

JPG · PNG · WebP · HEIC — up to 25 MP

  • Never stored
  • No watermark
  • No sign-up
Try one
  1. 1Drop a photoJPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 25 MP.
  2. 2We cut it outA small copy is processed on our server, then deleted. Nothing is stored.
  3. 3Download full sizeTransparent PNG, or any background colour you like.

How to do it

  1. 1Drop a head-and-shoulders photoFace the light, leave space above your head, and keep your shoulders in the frame.
  2. 2Pick a background colorTry white, a soft gray or your company color with the picker. A plain color reads best at small sizes.
  3. 3Download and crop to a squareDownload JPG, then crop to a square in the site's own uploader so your face sits in the middle of the circle.

What a profile picture needs

A profile picture is seen tiny, usually in a circle, often next to dozens of others. What matters is that your face is large, well lit and clearly separated from the background. A plain background does a lot of that work, because nothing competes with your face at small sizes.

Sizes differ by site, and every site shows the image much smaller than you upload it. LinkedIn's help page for page images, for example, recommends 400 by 400 pixels with a minimum of 268 by 268 and a 3 MB cap. Start with a photo far larger than that. The site will shrink it, and shrinking keeps things sharp, while enlarging never does.

Take a photo that cuts out well

Face a window. Soft daylight on your face gives clean skin tones and a clear outline. Light from behind you makes your edges glow and mixes your hair with the background.

Step away from the wall. A foot or two of space stops your shadow from touching your outline, which is where cut-outs most often go wrong.

Frame head and shoulders with room on top. Profile circles cut off the corners. If your head touches the top of the photo, the circle will clip it.

Wear something that is not the background color. A white shirt against a white wall is hard for any model to separate. Contrast makes the edge cleaner.

Choosing a background color

The background tool lets you choose transparent, white, black or any color from the picker. A few rules of thumb:

  • Light gray or off-white is the safest choice for professional networks. It looks clean in both light and dark mode.
  • A muted brand color works well for team pages where everyone uses the same one. Pick the exact color once and reuse it for every photo.
  • Avoid pure black if you have dark hair, and avoid pure white if you are wearing white. Your outline will disappear.
  • Avoid busy gradients and fake office backgrounds. At thumbnail size they read as noise.

Problems specific to portraits

Flyaway hair looks chopped. Fine strands are the hardest part of any portrait cut-out. Use Restore at a small size to bring back a few strands, and pick a background color close to the original's brightness so the edge blends. The hair page goes into more detail.

Glasses frames lose their middle. The space between the frame and your face sometimes keeps a bit of the old background. Clear it with Erase.

Ears or shoulders get trimmed. Paint them back with Restore. Zoom out afterward to check that the outline looks natural.

Which format to download

Download JPG with your chosen color. Every site accepts it and it is small. Keep a PNG with a transparent background too, so you can change the color later for a different site without redoing the cut-out.

Questions people ask

How do I remove the background from my profile picture?

Drop the photo into the tool above. After about 20 seconds the background is gone, and you can keep it transparent or pick white, black or any color. Download the result, then upload it to the site and crop it there.

What background color is best for a LinkedIn profile picture?

A plain, light or mid-tone color that contrasts with your hair and clothes. Very dark hair on black, or a white shirt on white, makes your outline disappear in the small circle. A soft gray or a muted brand color is a safe choice.

Why does my profile picture look blurry after uploading?

Sites shrink and compress profile photos, and a small or heavily cropped source gets worse. Start from a full-size photo where your face is large. WipeMark keeps the original resolution, so the cut-out is as sharp as the photo you gave it.

Should I upload a transparent PNG as my profile picture?

Usually not. Many sites put a transparent picture on their own background color, which changes between light and dark mode. Choose a solid background yourself so your photo looks the same everywhere.

Can WipeMark crop my photo into a circle?

No. WipeMark has no crop or resize tool. Most sites, including LinkedIn, let you position and crop the photo when you upload it, and they show it in a circle automatically.