How to Remove White Background in Adobe Illustrator 2026

If you’ve ever downloaded an image and needed to remove the white background in Adobe Illustrator, this video will walk you through a simple way to do it. Hi, my name is Limon and in this video, I’ll show you how to use the Image Trace feature to turn your image into editable shapes, which makes it easy to remove the background. We’ll start by tracing the image using the High Fidelity Photo preset so Illustrator captures the details as accurately as possible. Then we’ll expand the image, ungroup the shapes, and quickly delete the white areas using the Direct Selection Tool. I’ll also show you how to export the final result as a PNG with a transparent background, so you can place the image anywhere without that white box around it. It’s a straightforward technique, and once you see it in action, you’ll be able to clean up backgrounds in Illustrator in just a few minutes.