JPG to PNG for Sublimation

Sublimation printing wants PNG with a transparent background — JPG won't work because the white "background" actually transfers as a polyester-coating block on your shirt or tumbler. Drop your JPG here, get back a PNG with the full resolution intact. Free, no Photoshop, no upload.

Drop JPG files here

or click to browse

Accepts: .jpg, .jpeg

The whole sublimation workflow in five steps

  1. Convert JPG to PNG. (That's this page.) PNG is the format that supports transparency and stays lossless at 300+ DPI.
  2. Remove the background. The format conversion alone doesn't strip the white background out of the original JPG. Use Canva's free Erase tool, Photopea (a free in-browser Photoshop clone), or remove.bg.
  3. Mirror the image. Sublimation prints in reverse. Your design software (Silhouette Studio, EasySubli, Cricut Design Space) has a mirror toggle.
  4. Print on sublimation paper. Use the manufacturer's ICC profile for the cleanest colors.
  5. Press at the temperature your blank wants. 385°F / 60 seconds is the standard for polyester shirts; tumblers and mugs vary.

Why JPG fails at step 1 and PNG saves you

JPG always fills empty pixels with a color, usually white. Sublimation ink reacts with the polyester coating wherever the printer lays it down — including the white background, which means you get a faint rectangle around your design on dark shirts and slightly off-color "white" on white shirts. PNG supports a transparent alpha channel; pixels that are transparent get no ink, period. That's why every sublimation tutorial says "save as PNG."

Resolution matters more than the DPI tag

The DPI field in a PNG header is metadata. The actual sharpness is governed by pixel count and physical print size. A 3000x3000 PNG printed at 10 inches gives you 300 effective DPI no matter what the header says. This tool preserves the original pixel count of your JPG.

If your starting file is from an iPhone

iPhone photos are usually HEIC, not JPG. Drop them on HEIC to PNG instead and you'll get a PNG directly without an extra step.

If your starting file is a WEBP from Pinterest

Same deal — use WEBP to PNG. (Quick reminder: only sublimate designs you actually have the right to use commercially. Pinterest art is usually copyrighted.)

No upload, ever

Your originals, your watermarked drafts, your client's branding files — they all stay on your machine. Convert, then upload to the background remover yourself when you're ready.