About Text Behind Image
This is the effect you have seen on magazine covers, album art and YouTube thumbnails: a big word runs across the picture, and the person in the photo stands in front of it. Part of the word vanishes behind a shoulder or a head, then reappears on the other side. That small overlap is what makes a flat photo suddenly look three-dimensional.
Doing it by hand means cutting the subject out in an image editor, putting the text on a layer underneath, and putting the cut-out back on top. Here it takes one upload. The subject is found for you, the text drops in behind it, and you drag the words to wherever they look best.
Your photo is never uploaded. The cut-out runs on your own device.
How the layers work
It helps to know what is actually happening, because it explains every setting on the page:
- Layer 1 — your photo, whole and untouched
- Layer 2 — your text, drawn on top of it
- Layer 3 — your subject on its own, with the background cut away, painted back over the text
So the words sit between the background and the subject. Wherever the subject covers them, they disappear.
What photos work best
- One clear subject — a person, a pet, a car, a bottle. A crowd gives the cut-out too many edges to find.
- A subject that stands out from the background. A dark coat against a dark wall is hard for any tool, human or not.
- Space around the subject for the text to run into. A tight head-and-shoulders crop leaves nowhere for a word to go.
- Portrait or landscape, any size. Very large photos are worked on at up to 2000 pixels so the tool stays quick.
Features
- The subject is found automatically — no cutting out by hand, no clicking around edges
- Drag the text anywhere on the picture, with the subject always staying in front
- Six fonts, from a heavy poster face to a handwriting style
- Any colour, with opacity, tilt, letter spacing, outline and a soft shadow
- Cut-out edge control, for the photos where the automatic cut is not quite right
- Save as PNG or JPG at the full size of the picture
- 100% in your browser — the photo is never sent anywhere, and there is no account to make
If the cut-out is not right
The Cut-out edge slider is there for exactly this, and it works both ways:
- Part of my subject has been erased — a glass, a light-coloured sleeve, a thin bit of hair — lower the slider. It keeps more of the picture in the front layer.
- The text is hidden behind something that is not my subject — raise it. It keeps less, so more of the background lets the text through.
Changing it is instant: the cut-out is not re-calculated, only re-applied.
Common uses
- YouTube thumbnails where the title runs behind the presenter
- Instagram and TikTok posts with a name or a date behind the subject
- Posters and event flyers in the classic magazine-cover style
- Product photos with the brand or price sitting behind the item
- Profile banners for LinkedIn, X or a personal site
Related tools
- Background Remover — cut the subject out and keep it as a transparent PNG
- Meme Generator — text on top of a picture, the classic way
- Add Watermark to Image — repeatable text or logo over a photo
- Image Resizer — size the result for a thumbnail or a post
- Photo Collage Maker — put several photos into one picture
Good to know
- The cut-out model starts downloading the moment you open the page, so by the time you have chosen a photo it is usually ready and the text appears behind your subject immediately. On a slow connection the first go waits a few seconds — you will see your photo with a note explaining why. The words are never shown on top of your subject while it works, because that is the one thing this tool is for.
- If the cut-out cannot be made at all — usually a connection problem — the text is still drawn, just on top of the photo rather than behind the subject. The message on screen tells you when that has happened.
- PNG keeps the picture exactly as you see it. JPG makes a smaller file and is what most social sites want.
How to use it
- Upload a photo — click the box or drop a file onto it
- Wait a moment while the subject is found; the first time is the slowest
- Type your text in the box on the right
- Drag the words on the picture to where you want them — try running them across the middle of the subject
- Set the size, colour and tilt until it looks right
- Nudge the Cut-out edge slider if part of the subject is missing, or if the text is hidden by background
- Press Download PNG (or JPG for a smaller file)
