Signature Clean-up
Photograph a signature or handwritten note with your phone and get back clean ink on a transparent background. Uneven lighting, shadows and paper texture are handled properly, and the SVG export contains real vector paths.
Drop a photo or click to browse
A phone snapshot on plain paper is fine
Best for phone photos with uneven lighting
Lower keeps more faint strokes, higher rejects more background
Discards ink blobs smaller than this area
Positive closes pen gaps, negative thins heavy ink
Recommended: preserves small loops and pen texture.
Result
Upload a photo to see the cleaned result
Transparent PNG suits DTF. The SVG holds real paths, so it scales cleanly and cutters can read it.
How It Works
Photograph or Scan
A phone photo is fine. Shadows and uneven lighting are handled.
Tune the Threshold
Adaptive by default. Raise despeckle to drop paper texture.
Export
Transparent PNG for DTF, or a true vector SVG for cutting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my phone photo work now?
The image is divided by a blurred estimate of the paper brightness, which flattens the lighting gradient, and the threshold is then computed per pixel from its local neighbourhood using Sauvola. A single global cut-off cannot cope with one side of the page being brighter than the other.
Is the SVG really vector?
Yes. The outline is traced with marching squares and simplified with Ramer-Douglas-Peucker, so the file contains real path data. It scales without blurring and a cutter can follow the contours.
What does despeckle do?
Every group of connected ink pixels is measured, and groups smaller than the threshold are discarded. That removes paper grain, dust and compression artefacts without touching the strokes.
My strokes have gaps. Can I close them?
Increase the thickness control. Positive values dilate the ink, bridging the small breaks a dry pen leaves. Negative values erode it, which helps if the strokes came out too heavy.
Which export should I use for DTF?
Transparent PNG at 2x or 4x. DTF prints no white underbase by default, so the transparency is what leaves the garment showing through around the strokes.
Can I change the ink colour?
Yes, and it applies to both the PNG and the SVG fill. Note that a very light ink on a dark garment still needs a white underbase from your printer.