Craft
Vinyl and paper cutting
A shape a Cameo or Cricut can follow, without an evening spent tracing the outline by hand first.
One photo in · Clean cuttable edges · No sign-up
Photo to Silhouette
Turn one photo into a silhouette made for cutting, printing or a logo — unmistakably yours, without sacrificing an evening to tracing it by hand.
Edges you can cut alongThe real outline, not a generic oneTwo tones and nothing else
Before / after
One backlit photo, and the shape it reduces to
Made with the model this page uses. Drag the divider — watch the hair and the gap under the arm, which are the two places a bad conversion gives itself away.
Drag to compare before and after
AI photo tool
What makes a silhouette usable rather than just dark
Don't settle for a darkened photo with messy edges. A real silhouette is two tones: a solid black shape on pure white, with a boundary sharp enough to feed straight into a cutting machine, print or trace. Face, clothing and texture drop away, and your exact pose and profile carry the whole likeness.
Image tool
This is one of those conversions people have always done by hand. Papercraft and Cameo owners trace outlines to feed a cutting machine, much as people do for a tattoo stencil; small businesses want a mark built from an actual photograph rather than stock clip art; teachers make name displays. Tell it where the silhouette is going and it shapes the outline for the job.
For a cutting machine you want the fewest, cleanest closed curves possible, because every wobble becomes a blade movement. For a print you can afford fine detail like individual hairs. For a logo you want the shape simplified deliberately, since a mark that only reads at full size is not a mark.
Creative engine
How the generator works
Upload a picture, say what the shape is for, and the credit estimate updates before you press anything. The run happens on this page and the result opens directly under the box.
1 photo
Photo in
2 tones
Out
Cut or print
Use
The pose is doing all the work
With the interior removed, a person facing the camera becomes an anonymous blob. Side-on, mid-stride, arms away from the body, a ponytail, a hat, a hand holding something — those are what make a silhouette readable, and they have to be in the photo before you upload it. Objects and animals are usually easier than people.
Gaps are the quality test
The space between an arm and a waist, between two legs, between the ear and a strand of hair. A conversion that fills those in has produced a shape that reads as a sack. Look at the negative space in the result before anything else.
How to use
Three steps to a shape you can use
Give the outline something unmistakable to carry: a side profile, separated arms, visible hair or a hat.
Shoot the pose, not the face
Turn side-on, get the arms away from the body, let the hair or the hat show. Once the interior is gone the outline is the only thing left carrying meaning.
Say what it is for
A cutting machine wants few clean closed curves. A print can take individual strands of hair. A logo wants the shape deliberately simplified, and a screen may want it inverted to white on black. Put it in the prompt.
Check the negative space
Look at the gaps first — under the arm, between the legs, around the hair. If they are open and clean the shape stays readable when you scale it down.
Who it's for
What people cut, print and hang
Makers, small businesses, teachers and parents get the finished shape tonight instead of losing another evening to tracing.
Brand
Marks and logos
A small business mark built from a real photograph — the actual building, the actual dog — instead of stock clip art everyone else also bought.
03Print
Nursery and classroom walls
A child's own profile as a print, or a wall of thirty of them with names underneath. The traditional version of this involved a lamp and a pencil.
Answers
Questions about the shape
What survives, what to shoot, and what it is fit for afterwards.
Upload the picture on this page, say what you intend to do with the shape, and press generate. The result opens under the box as a solid black shape on white, ready to download. There is nothing to install and no tracing by hand.
It helps but it is not required. A subject in front of a window or a bright sky is already close to separated from its background, which leaves less to decide. A normally lit photo works too, as long as the subject's edge is clearly distinct from whatever is behind it.
Almost always the pose. Facing the camera straight on, with arms against the body, leaves an outline that could be anybody once the interior is removed. Turn side-on, move the arms away from the torso, and let something distinctive show — a ponytail, a hat, a hand holding something.
It should, and that is the first thing to check. Open negative space under an arm or between the legs is what separates a usable shape from a sack. If the gaps are filled in, run it again with a photo where they are more clearly visible.
Yes, and ask for it in the prompt — say you want the fewest, cleanest closed curves rather than fine detail, because every wobble in an outline becomes a blade movement. Then trace the download to a vector in your cutting software and send that clean path straight to the blade.
Yes, and distinctive outlines shine: a bike, a tree, a cat mid-stretch, a bird on a wire all keep their identity with nothing inside them. The hardest case is a group standing shoulder to shoulder, because touching edges merge into a single shape.
Yes, just ask for it. The same run can invert so the subject is white against a solid black field, which suits screen use and dark-background printing.
A standard image file you can download directly from the result, in the aspect ratio you picked. For cutting machines you will usually want to trace it to a vector in your own software afterwards; for print it is ready as it is.
Yes — take it into a video model and the silhouette will animate, which is how the walking-figure clips people use as intros are usually made.
Kavel pricing — you pay per generation, never per seat
Credits are shared across everything Kavel runs. You see the cost before each run, and a failed job is never charged.
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- Up to 960 videos
- Up to 1,920 images
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- HD, Watermark-Free Downloads
- Commercial Use License
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$24.0/month
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- 38,400 Credits Per Year
- Up to 3,840 videos
- Up to 7,680 images
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- HD, Watermark-Free Downloads
- Commercial Use License
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$30.0/month
$360/year billed yearly
- 86,400 Credits Per Year
- Up to 8,640 videos
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- HD, Watermark-Free Downloads
- Commercial Use License
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More tools
Other ways to strip a photo back
More conversions that remove rather than add, and the model behind them.
Stop tracing it by hand
The outline you were going to spend an evening following, without the evening. No sign-up is needed, the estimate is on the button before you press it, and if the run fails your credits come straight back.