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PetPrintKit
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Questions and things that go wrong

Grouped by where you are in the job, and weighted towards the problems that actually come up: a photo that will not open, a verdict that got worse when you changed size, fur that came out looking chopped, a pass that stopped applying to a file you re-saved. If your question is not here, ask us — it is how this page grows.

Getting started, and whether it will run on your machine

Do I have to install anything or create an account?
Neither. It is a web page. Open it, drop a photo in, and work — there is no download, no plugin, no sign-up and no password. The free tier asks for nothing at all, and even paying does not create an account: a Pro license is a key you paste in, and a single-photo pass needs nothing pasted anywhere.
Which browsers does it work in?
Any current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on a desktop or laptop computer. Chrome or Edge on a machine with a reasonably modern graphics card is the fastest combination by a wide margin, because that is where the browser can hand the work to the GPU. On a desktop browser without one it falls back to the processor, which is slower but produces exactly the same result.
Can I do this on my phone or iPad?
No — this tool is only claimed to work on a desktop or laptop computer, and it does not run correctly on a phone. You are welcome to try it, and some of it will work, but nothing about the experience on a phone is supported and we would not ask you to rely on it for a customer order. Use a computer.
Why did the first background removal take so long, when the second was instant?
The background remover has to be downloaded to your browser the first time you use it — the app tells you how big it is and waits for you to agree before it starts. After that it is stored on your device, so every photo from then on begins immediately, and it keeps working even with no connection. Clearing your browser data is the one thing that makes it download again.
The tab froze, reloaded itself, or the photo never appeared. What happened?
Almost always memory. Cutting out a large photo needs a lot of it at once, and a browser that runs short closes the tab rather than reporting an error. Close other tabs and other applications, and if it keeps happening, export a slightly smaller JPG from your photo app and use that — the cut-out edge barely changes, because the removal step works from a scaled copy anyway.
Do I need to keep the tab open while it works?
Yes. Everything happens inside that tab on your own machine, so closing it or letting the laptop sleep mid-job cancels the work — there is no server carrying on without you. Nothing is lost except the time: drop the same photo back in and start again.
Does anything I do get saved between visits?
No, and that is deliberate. There is no project file, no history and no cloud folder — when you close the tab, the photo and everything made from it are gone from the app. Download your ZIP before you leave. What does persist is the downloaded background remover and, if you have one, your license key.

The photo your customer sent you

The customer sent an iPhone HEIC file. Do I need to convert it first?
No. HEIC and HEIF are read directly, including on browsers that cannot normally display them, and they are the format this tool sees most often. If a particular HEIC still refuses to open, it is usually a Live Photo or a depth-effect capture — open it in Photos, export it as a JPG at full size, and that will work.
It says the photo can only print small, but my customer swears it is from a brand new iPhone.
They are probably both right. The camera took a large photo; the way it reached you shrank it. WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and iMessage all recompress images to somewhere around 1,200 pixels on the long edge, which is a fraction of the original. Ask for the original file by email or AirDrop and the verdict usually changes completely.
Which file formats can I drop in?
JPG, PNG, WebP, and iPhone HEIC or HEIF. You can also paste an image straight from the clipboard. Camera RAW files (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG) and layered files (PSD, TIFF) are not read — if a customer sends one, ask them to export a full-size JPG, or open it yourself and export one. Do not resize it on the way out.
Can I use a screenshot, or a photo saved off Instagram or Facebook?
Only for the smallest sizes, and often not even those. A screenshot is limited to the pixels on the screen it was taken from, and a photo saved from a social feed has been recompressed at least twice. Both will pass the 200 DPI check at 5x7 sometimes and fail everything above it. Run it through the check before you promise a size.
The photo is big enough but it is blurry, dark or grainy. Will the tool fix that?
No, and it will not pretend to. Resolution and quality are different problems: the check counts pixels, and a soft photo with plenty of pixels still prints soft. Blur, camera shake and low-light noise are all made more obvious by printing, not less. A second photo is the only real fix, which is why there is a copy-paste message for asking for one.
My customer only has this one photo and it is not good enough. What do I actually tell them?
Tell them the size, not the technicalities. "This photo will print beautifully at 8x10, but not at 16x20 — if you have the original from your phone rather than a copy from a chat app, I can probably do the bigger one" gives them something to act on and does not read as criticism of their photo. There is a full template you can paste in the guides.
Does the verdict account for the crop, or just the raw pixel count?
The crop, always. A phone photo is a 3:4 rectangle and most print sizes are not, so reaching a given aspect ratio throws pixels away before anything is printed. Dividing raw width by inches — which is what most calculators do — overstates the result, sometimes by enough to change a green into a red. Every number you see here is measured after the crop for that size.
The verdict got worse when I switched to a different size with the same number of inches. Why?
Because the aspect ratio changed, and with it how much of the photo survives the crop. An 11x14 and a 12x16 are close in area but not in shape, so one may keep noticeably more of a 3:4 phone photo than the other. The per-size chart shows exactly what each ratio costs.

When the cut-out is not right

The edge of the fur looks chopped off, like a sticker.
That is the single most common complaint about any automatic background removal, and it is what the refine brush is for. Zoom into the worst edge, paint back the fur that went missing, and paint away anything that should not be there. Ninety seconds of brushing on the outline of the ears and the ruff is usually the whole difference between a cut-out that looks cut out and one that does not.
A patch of the sofa or the grass is showing through the ear fluff and between the legs.
Those are the two places it happens: anywhere the background is visible through thin fur, and any small enclosed gap. Both are quick brush fixes — work at high zoom and remove the leftover background rather than trying to redraw the fur around it. Check between the legs and under the tail before you export; they are easy to miss at fit-to-screen size.
It struggles with my white dog on a white sofa (or a black cat in a dark room).
Low contrast between the animal and its background is the hardest case there is, and no amount of clever software gets around a boundary that is genuinely ambiguous. If you have any choice of photo, pick the one where the animal stands out from what is behind it. If you do not, expect to brush the whole outline rather than just the edges, and be honest with yourself about whether it is good enough at 100%.
There are two pets in the photo, and it kept the wrong one — or both.
It keeps what reads as the subject of the photo, which with two animals in frame is usually both of them. If you want just one, brush the other away; if the photo is a group shot and the customer wants a single portrait, it is nearly always cleaner to crop tightly around the one animal first and then remove the background.
It removed the collar, the leash or the toy.
Anything that is not obviously part of the animal is a judgement call, and it can go either way — a bright collar usually stays, a thin lead usually does not. Paint it back with the refine brush if the customer wants it. If they want the collar gone, this works in your favour, but check the fur where it sat.
There is a faint halo or a coloured fringe around the outline.
That is the old background bleeding into the semi-transparent edge pixels — most visible when a dark animal was photographed against something bright, or vice versa. Brushing the outline slightly tighter removes it. It also matters much less than it looks: on a white print background a light fringe disappears entirely, so judge it against the background you are actually going to print on, not against the checkerboard.
How do I know the cut-out is genuinely good enough to send?
Look at it at 100%, not fitted to the window, and look at the specific places that fail: the outline of the ears, the ruff at the chest, whiskers against a dark area, and any gap you can see through. A print is viewed at arm’s length and every edge artefact you can see on screen at full size will be visible on paper.
Does it work as well on cats, horses and rabbits as on dogs?
Yes — anything with fur or hair. Cats often come out slightly better than dogs in practice, because whiskers tend to sit against higher contrast. Long-haired breeds with a wispy outline are the demanding case regardless of species, and they are the ones worth brushing.
Can I get the original background back after removing it?
Not from the cut-out — but nothing has happened to your original file, which is still sitting wherever the customer sent it. Drop it in again and start over. The tool never modifies, moves or overwrites the file you give it.

Print files, sizes and print-on-demand

What files do I actually get?
A PNG for every size you tick, at the exact pixel dimensions that size needs, all cropped from the single framing you set once. Each filename carries its own dimensions and DPI — for example 8x10-2400x3000-300dpi.png — so a folder of them is self-describing and sorts sensibly. They arrive as one ZIP with a read-me listing every file and its verdict.
Is the DPI written into the file, or only in the filename?
Both. The filename carries it so you can tell the files apart, and the number is also written into the PNG itself, which is the half that matters when you upload. A PNG with no resolution recorded in it gets read as 72 DPI by most software, so a correctly-sized 2400x3000 file for an 8x10 can arrive at a print service claiming to be a 33-inch poster. The pixels were always right; the field beside them is now set to match.
Do I have to re-frame the photo for each of the print sizes?
No — that is the point of doing it in this order. You position and zoom once, and all 11 sizes crop from that framing, each one keeping the animal’s face in frame for its own aspect ratio. Change the framing and every size follows.
Does it upscale a photo that cannot fill the size I asked for?
No, deliberately, and this is the one place the tool refuses to do something you might expect. Upscaling adds pixels without adding any detail the camera captured, so a file padded out to 300 DPI is not a better print — it is the same soft print with a more flattering number on it. Instead the size is exported at the resolution the photo genuinely has, the real DPI goes into the filename and into the file, and the read-me lists which sizes fell short. If you want to upscale anyway, do it with a dedicated upscaler and look at the result at 100% before you promise anything.
So what DPI is actually good enough to sell?
300 DPI is the target and what the tool aims every export at: sharp at any viewing distance, including held in the hand. From 200 to 299 DPI is genuinely fine for something framed on a wall and slightly soft close up — that is the honest upsell range, and it is more forgiving at poster sizes than at 8x10. Below 150 DPI, do not sell that size from that photo at all. Fur is the demanding case, because whiskers and individual strands are nearly single-pixel features, so bias towards 300 even at large sizes where a landscape would tolerate less. Nothing is blocked from exporting — you are told the number and it is your call.
Can I get JPGs, TIFFs or PDFs instead of PNGs?
Not from the app — everything exports as PNG, which is what print-on-demand services ask for and the only format that can carry the transparent background. If you need another format for a particular provider, any free online image converter will do it in a few seconds, and so will your own computer: Preview on a Mac (File, Export) and Paint or Photos on Windows both save a PNG as a JPG without installing anything. Two things to watch. Converting to JPG flattens the transparency to a solid colour, usually white, so decide what that background should be first. And converters routinely drop the resolution field, so if your provider reads DPI, check it survived, or upload the PNG instead. Keep the PNG as your master either way.
Can I add a bleed margin?
There is no bleed option — files come out at exactly the trim size you asked for. In practice this is what print-on-demand wants: Printful, Printify and Gelato all add their own bleed from the file you upload. If you are printing somewhere that requires bleed baked in, download their template and add the margin in whatever you use to place the file, starting from the PNG.
Can I export onto a white or coloured background instead of a transparent one?
Yes. Stage 3 offers four choices: keep it transparent, drop in a solid colour from the print-safe presets or any colour you pick, take one of the gallery backgrounds, or upload an image of your own. Whatever you choose is baked into every size you export, and the read-me in the ZIP records which it was. Transparent is still the default and is usually right for paper, because it prints as whatever the paper is and leaves the decision with whoever lays the print out.
Will these files work with Printful, Printify or Gelato?
Yes. They are standard PNGs at the pixel dimensions each product expects, which is what every print-on-demand service asks for. Upload them as they come out of the ZIP — the filename tells you which one goes on which product.
Does it convert to CMYK?
No, deliberately. Colour conversion belongs to the print provider, who knows their own paper and inks; every one of them expects RGB files and converts in their own pipeline. A browser cannot run a properly colour-managed CMYK conversion, and an approximate one would shift your colours for the worse before the printer ever saw them.
Should I send my customer the transparent PNG?
Usually not on its own. A transparent background looks like a mistake to someone who is not expecting one, and it prints as whatever the paper is. Send them the finished print files, and keep the transparent version as your working file for mugs, tote bags and anything you want to place on a different background later.
Which print sizes should I offer for a pet portrait?
8x10 covers the largest share of orders and almost every phone photo can reach it. 5x7 is the safe upsell when a photo will not go bigger. 16x20 and above is where you need either a recent phone shooting at full resolution or a real camera. Square sizes are worth listing separately, because a square crop of a standing animal is a different photo and you want to check it before you promise it.
Can I put my own logo or shop mark on the files?
Yes, and it is free. Upload a PNG of your mark, choose a corner, and set how large and how visible it is. It goes underneath the free-tier watermark rather than instead of it, so on a free export you will see both — your mark is what remains once the watermark is paid off.

Listing mockups

What do the mockups give me?
Your finished portrait composited into framed room scenes — the sort of photo Etsy buyers scroll past first. It gives you a listing image and a sense of scale without owning a physical print, a frame or a subscription to a mockup site, and it renders on your own machine along with everything else.
Am I allowed to use these in a real Etsy listing?
Yes. The scenes are here to be used commercially in your listings; that is what they are for. What you should not do is present a mockup as a photograph of the actual item you posted — it is a visualisation, and Etsy expects at least one real photo of the real product alongside it once you have one.
Can I use my own room photo as the scene?
Not yet. The scenes are a fixed set today, chosen so the perspective and lighting hold up when a portrait is dropped into them. If your own wall is what you want, the transparent PNG and a print you own will get you there faster than waiting for the feature.
The mockup looks lower resolution than my print file. Is something wrong?
No. A mockup is a web image for a listing page, so it is rendered at listing-photo size rather than print size — the print files in your ZIP are unaffected and are the full-resolution ones. Never send a mockup to a print provider.

The watermark, passes and licenses

What is the catch with the free version?
One thing, and it is visible: every image the free tier exports has a petprintkit.com watermark tiled across it. Nothing else is held back — every print size, the background removal, the refine brush, the mockups, no photo limit and no trial clock. Free files are for checking your own work; they are not deliverable, on purpose.
Can I just crop or paint the watermark out?
Not usefully. It is tiled across the whole image rather than tucked into a corner, so there is no clean part to keep. That is deliberate: the free tier exists so you can prove the tool works on your own photos before you spend anything, not so watermarked files quietly reach customers.
I have one order. Do I have to subscribe?
No. There is a $5 single-photo pass that takes the watermark off everything you make from one source photo — every size and every mockup — with no subscription and no account. You buy it inside the app at the moment you export, so you look at the finished work first and decide afterwards. Past about three orders a month, the $19 plan costs less.
I bought a pass, then re-exported later and the watermark came back.
The pass is attached to the exact photo file you bought it for, recognised by its contents. Anything that changes those contents — cropping, rotating or re-saving it in another app, or exporting a fresh copy from Photos — produces a file the pass does not recognise, even if it looks identical. Keep the original file you loaded, and use that one when you come back to re-export.
Does a pass cover the second pet in the same order?
No. One pass, one source photo. Two photos in an order means two passes — or the monthly plan, which stops the arithmetic mattering.
I paid for a pass and then cleared my browser data. Is it gone?
Unfortunately yes, on that browser. A pass is remembered by your browser alone — that record is the only thing tying your payment to the photo, so clearing it leaves nothing to re-establish the pass from, and the same is true on a second computer. Download your clean exports before you clear anything, and keep the Stripe receipt: if this catches you out, send us the email you paid with and we will sort it out.
The Stripe window did not open, or it closed before I finished.
Check your popup blocker first; that is the usual cause, and the app tells you when the window was blocked. If you closed the tab mid-payment, nothing was charged. If the payment went through but the app was still watermarking, leave the app tab open for a moment — it is watching for the payment to land — and if it still has not caught up, reload the page and load the same photo again.
How does Pro work if there are no accounts?
It is a license key. You pay through Stripe, the key arrives by email, and you paste it into the app once. It is kept in your browser and re-checked from time to time, which is the only moment this site talks to a server about you at all. There is no password to forget and no profile to delete.
I pasted my key and it says it is not valid.
Three things catch most cases: a trailing space or a missing character from a partial copy out of the email; a key from a subscription that has since ended; and no connection, since the key has to be checked once before it is trusted. Paste it again from the original email, in full. If it still refuses, send us the email address you paid with and we will look it up.
Can I use one license on my laptop and my desktop?
Yes. A license is for one seller, so use it on as many of your own machines as you like — paste the key on each. It is not meant to be shared across a team or a group of shops.
What happens to my files if I cancel?
Nothing at all — they are already on your computer, and always were. There is no cloud storage to lose access to. The app keeps working exactly as before, and new exports go back to being watermarked.

Your customers’ photos, and privacy

Are my customers’ photos uploaded anywhere?
No. Reading the photo, removing the background, cropping, resizing and building the mockups all happen inside your browser, on your machine. There is no upload step because there is no server to upload to, and no storage bucket that could hold a photo even if someone asked us for one.
So can I tell a customer their photo stays private?
Yes, and you can say why rather than just asserting it: the file never leaves your computer, so there is no copy of it anywhere else to leak. That is a stronger promise than any privacy policy, because it is a property of how the tool is built rather than a commitment about how a company behaves.
Does it work offline?
Once the background remover has downloaded, largely yes — you can pull the network cable and keep working. Checking a Pro license key needs a connection, but a recent check is trusted for a while, so a flight does not lock you out.
What is stored on my computer?
The downloaded background remover, so returning visits fetch nothing; and, if you have paid, your license key or a note of which photos have a pass. No photos, no exports, no history. Clearing your browser data removes all of it — which costs you only the re-download if you are on Pro, but does lose a single-photo pass, so export your clean files first.

Still stuck?

Something genuinely broken goes to the front of the queue — tell us which browser you were using and what you saw, and there is a good chance it gets fixed for everyone. The guides go deeper on the photo problems this page only summarises.

Contact usRead the guides