PDF to PNG with no background: why you get white, and the fix

The short answer: white is built in, so remove it afterwards

Our PDF to PNG draws every page on white, like the paper it stands for, and saves a plain solid picture. We checked it with a test PDF that had see-through parts: the PNG came out with not a single see-through pixel. So you won't get a see-through logo straight from this page, or from most PDF converters. What to do depends on what you want:

The rest of this post explains the white, and each route in turn. Everything on our side runs in your browser, so your logo or signature is never sent anywhere.

Why PDF pages come out on white

PNG can store see-through pixels, the checkered pattern an editor shows around a logo. But a PDF page is made to look like a sheet of paper. Most PDF pages have no background of their own. They rely on the white of the paper, and the text and lines are drawn straight on that.

So when a page becomes a picture, there are two choices: leave the background see-through, or put the white of the paper in. We put the white in, for good reasons:

• Black text could vanish. On a see-through picture, black words land on whatever is behind the picture. On a dark slide or in a dark-mode app, they would disappear.
• It matches what you see. The PNG looks exactly as the page looked in a PDF reader.
• Every app shows it the same. A solid picture looks the same in chat, in slides and on a website.

The logo you saw in the PDF may have had a see-through background in its own file. Once it was placed in the PDF page, that background became part of the white paper. That is why the PNG shows a logo sitting on white, and why removing the white is a separate job.

For a logo: get the original, or cut it out

Best: ask for the original file. A company, a school or a brand usually has a logo file made for this: often an SVG, or a PNG with a see-through background. It will be sharper than anything converted from a page. Check the organisation's website for a page of logos, ask whoever sent you the PDF, or look for the design file if you made the logo yourself.

If you only have the PDF:

1. Open PDF to PNG, type the logo's page number under Choose pages, pick High and convert. An A4 page then becomes 2480 × 3508 pixels. Normal gives 1240 × 1754, which is rarely enough for a small logo.
2. Open the PNG in a photo or design app and crop to the logo. A logo that fills a tenth of the page's width is about 248 pixels wide at High, so crop tightly and don't enlarge it much.
3. Use the app's background remover, or its tool for making one colour see-through, on the white. Many photo editors, design apps and gallery apps have one, under different names. We haven't tested any, so look closely at the result.
4. Save the result as a PNG. A JPG can't hold see-through parts.

Look at the edges. Put the new logo on a dark background, such as a dark slide or a dark colour in the editor. A thin white outline, called a halo, shows where the remover left some white behind. Undo and trim a little further inside the edge, or try again.

A warning in the other direction: a logo made for dark backgrounds may have white letters on a see-through background. Put on white paper, those letters disappear. If your logo has white text, ask for the version made for light backgrounds, as our PNG to PDF guide explains.

For a signature: start on clean white paper

A signature in a PDF is usually part of a scanned page, with the grain of the paper around it. A cleaner picture comes from signing again for the purpose:

1. Sign on clean white paper with a dark pen, such as black or dark blue. A thin or light pen leaves faint edges.
2. Photograph it in even light, straight from above, with no shadow across the paper. Daylight near a window is best, without the flash.
3. Crop close, then remove the white with your app's background remover, and save a PNG.
4. Keep the original photo in case you want to try again.

You now have a signature picture. Our tools don't place pictures on a PDF page or sign a PDF. But you can put a see-through signature picture into a Word document, and our Word to PDF page lists see-through signatures among the things it supports. For a signed page that comes from paper, there is a simpler path: sign the printout, scan or photograph it, and turn the photo into a PDF.

Be careful with your signature. A clean picture of it can be reused by anyone who gets it. Share it only with people and places that need it, and don't post it in public.

How to tell if a PNG is really see-through

After you remove the white, you need to know the job is done. The picture on its own can fool you, because a see-through area and a white area often look alike. Three easy tests:

• Put it on a dark colour. Place the picture on a dark slide, or on a dark colour in your editor. If a white box shows around the logo, the white is still there.
• Look at the file size. A see-through version of the same logo is often a little different in size from the solid one. This isn't proof, only a hint.
• Check the extension and the app. A file ending in .jpg or .jpeg can never be see-through. Only PNG (and a few other formats, like SVG) can.

If you only see white when you open the picture in a chat or gallery app, don't worry yet. Some apps show a see-through picture on a white or black background. Test it where you will actually use it.

Why a logo in a PDF can look sharper than its PNG

The logo in a PDF is often drawn as shapes: lines and curves that the reader draws fresh at every zoom. That is why it stays sharp however far you zoom in. A PNG works differently. It is a grid of dots with a fixed count, and zooming in only makes the dots bigger.

That is why the choice of sharpness matters here. The page is drawn once at 72, 150 or 300 pixels per inch, and only those dots are saved. For a logo that was drawn as shapes, a higher sharpness draws those shapes again with more dots, so High gives the cleanest edges to cut out, and that is what we suggest. (A scanned logo is different: it is already dots, so High adds dots but not detail.) If you need the logo in many sizes, such as on a poster, the original vector file is the right source, since it is drawn fresh at any size.

For a chart or a page on a slide, keep the white

Often what people want is simply for a page or a chart to sit well on a coloured or dark slide. You may not need a see-through picture at all:

• On a white slide, the white page is invisible. Nothing to fix.
• On a dark or coloured slide, let the white show and make it look like paper. Put a thin border or a slight shadow around the picture, so it looks like a sheet laid on the slide. Our PDF to PNG guide has the same tip.
• For just a chart, crop the white edges away, or put the chart on a white box. A flat-coloured chart is sharp and small as a PNG, so Normal is enough: a bar chart page was 41 KB at Normal, and 12 KB at Small as a PNG in our tests.

If you must have the page's text itself on a dark slide, with no white at all, then a PNG is the wrong source. Copy the text out of the PDF with the PDF viewer (select it and copy), if the PDF holds real text, and set it in the slide.

What happens if you put it back in a PDF

You might want to put your new see-through logo or signature into a PDF again. A PDF page is paper, so a see-through picture turns white when it goes in, just as if it were printed. In our PNG to PDF tests, a see-through colour logo came out clean on white, a signature as a clean blue signature on a white page, and a white logo's white word vanished on the white page.

That is usually exactly right for paper. But it means a see-through PNG doesn't stay see-through inside our PDFs. Read Transparent PNG to PDF: what happens to the background to see how to check the quality.

Mistakes that spoil the result

Saving as JPG at the end.

JPG fills see-through parts with a solid colour, usually white. Save as PNG.

Converting at Small or Normal.

A small logo needs many pixels. Use High, then crop. More pixels give a smoother edge, but cannot add detail that was not in the PDF.

Removing white from a logo that has white inside it.

White letters or white parts of the logo can be cut out with the background. Check the inside, not just the edges.

Trusting the checkered pattern.

Many editors show a grey-and-white pattern that looks like white. Test the picture on a dark background to be sure.

Using a scan's grainy page.

A scan is a photo of paper, full of fine grain, so removing the white leaves speckles. Use the original file or sign again.

Enlarging a small logo.

Pictures made bigger look blocky. If you need a large logo, ask for the original.

Your logo and signature stay on your device

A signature picture is worth guarding. PDF to PNG draws the pages in your own browser and has no upload step, so your PDF and your pictures are never sent anywhere. The page contacts only this site and Google's ad service, which shows the ads that keep the tools free, and our code never gives your files to the ad code. The privacy policy has the details.