How to Use ImageForge

Four short walkthroughs covering the tasks people actually come here for: opening an image, cutting out a background, resizing for the web, and exporting cleanly. Each one takes under two minutes.

1. Open an image and make your first edit

1. Open the editor.
2. Load a picture in any of three ways:
   • drag the file onto the canvas — the fastest option
   • File → Open and pick a file
   • Ctrl+V / Cmd+V to paste from the clipboard
3. The image arrives as a layer. You will see it in the Layers panel on the right — that panel is your undo history made visible.
4. Try Image → Adjustments → Brightness/Contrast and move the sliders.
5. Press Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z to undo. Unsatisfied with the whole result? Edit → Undo repeatedly, or reload to start clean.
6. File → Save As → PNG. The file downloads to your device.

2. Remove a background

Best for logos, product shots and any subject on a flat, solid background.

1. Open the image.
2. Select the Magic Wand tool and click the background. Adjust Tolerance in the tool options: a low value selects only near-identical pixels, a high value reaches further into similar colours. Somewhere between 20 and 40 suits most photos.
3. Hold Shift and click to add missed areas to the selection; hold Alt to subtract areas you selected by mistake.
4. If the background is not one flat colour, switch to the Lasso tool and trace around the subject instead. Slower, but reliable.
5. Press Delete to clear the selected pixels. The checkerboard that appears is transparency, not a broken image.
6. Zoom to 200% and clean up the edges with the eraser.
7. Export as PNG. JPEG cannot store transparency — this is the single most common cause of "my background came back white".

3. Resize for the web

1. Open the image.
2. Image → Resize. Enter the target width; keep constrain proportions on unless you specifically want to stretch it.
3. Pick a sensible size rather than the largest you can get away with:
   • 1200–1600 px wide for blog hero images
   • 800–1200 px for inline article images
   • 200–400 px for thumbnails and avatars
4. For photographic content, export as WebP at quality 80 — typically 25–35% smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality. Use JPEG if you need compatibility with older software.
5. For screenshots, diagrams or anything with text and flat colour, PNG is usually smaller and sharper than JPEG.

4. Work with layers

Layers are what separate a quick tweak from real editing.

1. The Layers panel on the right lists everything, topmost first.
2. Layer → New adds an empty layer; drag entries to reorder; the eye icon toggles visibility.
3. Set Opacity to fade a layer, or change its blend mode to combine it with what is underneath.
4. Layer → Merge Down flattens a layer into the one below. This is not undoable past the point you save, so only merge when you are sure.
5. Most export formats flatten automatically. To preserve your layers, save in the project format and reopen it later.

Keyboard shortcuts worth memorising

The full list lives in Help → Keyboard Shortcuts in the editor.

Troubleshooting

Still stuck? Contact us or check the FAQ.