Guide · Photo fix

Photo fix — background out, or bigger

For anyone with a picture that is nearly right — the wrong background, or too small for where it has to go.

Step by step

1
Add the picture
Photo fix is the “Fix a photo” mode of the photo maker (/photofix opens it, and the launcher’s Photo tile has an “Open Photo fix” button). One picture, any shape. A phone photo is fine — it is scaled down on the way up, because these tools read at about 1500 pixels across and anything larger is upload time with no benefit. Press Continue.
The whole screen · click to open full size
2
Pick what needs fixing
Two choices. “Remove the background” cuts the subject out onto transparency. “Make it bigger” returns it sharper and larger. If what you actually need is a different size or format — 8.5 x 11, a Facebook banner — that is Sizes, not this page.
3
Press the button
It shows exactly what you will pay before you press it. A background comes out in about four seconds; an enlargement is usually under half a minute. One charge for the one thing you pressed, and only if it works.
4
Look at both
The result appears beside your original, so you can see exactly what changed. A cut-out is shown on a checkerboard — that pattern is how transparency is drawn on screen, and it is not part of your file.
5
Download or keep
Download saves a PNG with the transparency intact. It also saves to your My designs automatically.

Removing a background is $1; making a picture bigger is $1. You are only charged when the result comes back.
Remove the background works best when the subject has a clear edge. Hair against a busy background is the hard case and it handles it well; glass and smoke are genuinely difficult for anything.
Make it bigger sharpens what is already there — it does not invent detail that was never in the photo. A tiny blurry picture comes back as a larger, sharper version of that picture, not a new one.
Need one picture in both states? Run the result through the other fix — a cut-out can then be enlarged, and the charge is one each time.
For a different SIZE or FORMAT — 8.5 x 11, a Facebook banner, an Instagram story — use Sizes. That one is about the file, costs less, and changes nothing about the picture itself.

The messages the page can show, and what to do.

“Add a picture.”: Step 1 has no picture in it yet. Drop one on the box or click it to browse.
“Nothing is changed until you pick the fix.”: Not an error — Step 2 is waiting for you to choose “Remove the background” or “Make it bigger”.
“The background looks white, not transparent”: It is transparent — the checkerboard behind the result is how transparency is shown on screen. Download it and drop it onto a colored slide to see. If you need it on white, put it on white yourself; a PNG with transparency is the more useful file to keep.
“Make it bigger did not make it much sharper”: It sharpens what the photo already holds. If the original is very small or badly out of focus there is nothing there to sharpen — a screenshot of a screenshot is the usual culprit.
“I wanted to change the picture’s shape”: That lives in Sizes, which fits a picture to whatever size you need — a banner, a story, a letter page. This page only repairs what is in the picture.
“Could not reach the maker — try again.”: Your connection dropped for a moment. Check you’re online and press the button again. A job that fails is never charged.
“There isn’t enough on your account for that. Add money to keep going.”: Your balance can’t cover this piece. Add money on the Account page — your work carries on from where you left off. Nothing was charged.

Other guides

Add the picture