How to Make a Picture or Shape Transparent in PowerPoint

It's easy to adjust the opacity of images, shapes, and backgrounds

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: July 11, 2026 Fact Checked

• Using Windows
|
• Using a Mac
|
• Video
|
• Tips

|Show more |Show less

This wikiHow guide teaches you how to make a picture, shape, or slide background fully or partially transparent in Microsoft PowerPoint on a Windows PC or Mac. We'll cover adjusting the transparency of a picture or shape as a whole, plus cover using PowerPoint's "remove background" feature to make a picture's entire background transparent. You must have the Windows or Mac version of PowerPoint installed–you cannot adjust transparency in the web or mobile versions.

Changing Transparency in PowerPoint

• To change a picture's transparency, click it, then click the Picture Format tab and select Transparency. Choose a preset, or click Picture transparency options to use a slider.
• To make a picture's background transparent, select it, click the Picture Format tab, and click Remove Background.
• To change the transparency of a shape, click it, click the Shape Format tab, then use the slider in the right panel to increase or decrease transparency.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Using Windows

1. 
   1
   Click the picture or shape you want to make more transparent. Once you select it, it will be surrounded by white boxes to indicate that it's selected.

   • You can also use this method to make a picture's background completely transparent.
   • If you want to make the background of a slide transparent, right-click the background and select Format Background… instead. Then, skip to step 5.
2. 2
   Click the Picture Format tab. This tab only appears when a picture is selected. You'll find it at the top of PowerPoint.

   • If you want to change a shape's transparency, click the Shape Format menu instead. Then, skip to step 5.
   • If you're using an older version of PowerPoint, this tab will say Format instead.
   Advertisement
3. 3
   Click the Transparency option on the ribbon. It's in the "Adjust" panel. A list of transparency options will appear.

   • If you want to make a picture's background transparent without affecting the rest of the picture, click Remove Background instead. It's on the "Edit" panel of the ribbon. After a few moments, PowerPoint's built-in AI feature will remove the picture's background. Click Save to save your changes.
4. 
   4
   Select one of the transparency presets. If you see a preset that appears to have the right level of transparency, select it to instantly change the transparency. Alternatively, you can click Picture transparency options at the bottom to bring up a slider in the right panel. Then, use the slider to increase or decrease the picture's transparency.
5. 5
   Change the transparency of a slide background or shape. If you selected the Format Background or Format Shape option earlier in this method, you'll now see a panel on the right side of PowerPoint with a Transparency slider. Increase the object's transparency by dragging the slider to the right, or decrease it by dragging to the left.
Advertisement

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Using a Mac

1. 
   1
   Select the picture or shape you want to make transparent. Just click on the picture or shape to select it.

   • If you want to change the transparency of a slide's background, go to the slide, click the Design tab, and then click Format Background. From there, you can adjust the background transparency using the "Transparency" slider in the right panel.
2. 
   2
   Click the Picture Format tab. You can find this tab at the top of the screen when a picture is selected.

   • If you selected a shape, click the Shape Format tab instead. Then, you can use the "Transparency" slider in the Format pane to change the shape's transparency.
3. 
   3
   Click Transparency on the toolbar. This icon looks like a picture with a dashed, vertical line in the middle. It will open a drop-down panel of your transparency options.

   • Alternatively, if you just want to make the picture's background transparent, not the whole picture, select Remove Background instead. This lets you make a background completely transparent, so only the foreground area is visible on the slide.
     • The part of the background picture that will be removed will turn pink. If you need to change it, click the Picture Format tab again, then choose either Mark Areas to Keep or Mark Areas to Remove to fine-tune the area.
     • When you're finished, click Keep All Changes to save the new version of the picture to your slide.
4. 
   4
   Click a transparency preset on the Transparency menu (optional). This will instantly change your picture's transparency to the selected preset level.
5. 
   5
   Click Picture Transparency Options on the Transparency menu. To fine-tune the transparency, you can choose this option to use a slider instead. This will display a formatting pane in the right panel.
6. 
   6
   Find the Picture Transparency option on the formatting menu. If it's not extended, click the

   

   icon next to it, and expand your transparency tools.
7. 
   7
   Click and drag the Transparency slider. You can manually adjust the transparency level of the selected shape and picture in your presentation here.

   • Alternatively, you can type in a transparency percentage in the box or use the up and down arrows here.
Advertisement

Expert Q&A

Search

Add New Question

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Advertisement

Did this article help you? Say thanks with a small tip.

$1

$3

$5

Leave a Tip

Support our mission to help everyone in the world learn how to do anything.

Video

Tips

• This only applies to desktop clients, not the mobile apps for Android and iOS.
  Thanks

  Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• You can also use Google Slides to create slideshows for free.
  Thanks

  Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Submit a Tip

All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published

Name

Please provide your name and last initial

Submit

Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

Advertisement