How to Remove Text From an Image in Illustrator (Live Type, Outlines or Pixels)

How you remove text from an image in Illustrator depends on what the text is. Live type and outlined letters are vector objects you can select and delete; text inside a placed JPG or PNG is pixels, and Illustrator has no tool that paints pixels out. Disclosure: we build EditTextImage, an AI tool that erases or replaces the words inside a finished JPG, PNG or screenshot and rebuilds the background behind them. It is one option for that third case. The first two need nothing but Illustrator.

First, find out what kind of text it is

Click the words with the Selection tool (V) and read the label at the top of the Properties panel. Type means live text. Group, Compound Path or Path usually means the letters were converted to outlines. Image or Linked File means the words are part of a placed picture. For a second check, choose View > Outline (Ctrl+Y on Windows, Cmd+Y on Mac): placed images turn into a box with an X through it, so any words inside that box are pixels.

If nothing gets selected, the object or its layer is probably locked. Choose Object > Unlock All, or click the lock icon next to the layer in the Layers panel. Text inside a group or clipping mask is easier to reach after you double-click it to enter isolation mode.

Live type: select it and press Delete

A Type object is the easy case. Click the text frame with the Selection tool and press Delete to remove the whole thing. To take out a few words and keep the rest, switch to the Type tool (T), highlight the words and delete them; the remaining text keeps its font, size and colour. Nothing behind live type needs repairing, because it was never painted onto anything.

Outlined text: delete the letter shapes

Text converted with Type > Create Outlines becomes a group of shapes, one per letter, so you cannot retype it but you can still delete it. Click the group and press Delete to remove the whole word. To remove single letters, use the Group Selection tool (it sits under the Direct Selection tool) or double-click into the group, then click each letter and delete it. On a crowded logo the Lasso tool (Q) is often faster for picking up several shapes at once.

One catch: if the designer used Pathfinder to cut the letters out of a shape, the words are holes, not objects, and there is nothing to delete. Draw a shape over the holes in the same colour, select it together with the original shape and choose Pathfinder > Unite to fill them in.

Text inside a placed photo or image

Illustrator edits vector objects. It has no brush that repaints the pixels of a placed JPG, PNG or PSD, and its generative features, such as Generative Shape Fill and Generative Expand, create vector artwork. The tools Adobe documents for removing things from pixels (the Remove tool, Content-Aware Fill and Generative Fill) are in Photoshop. So you either work around the pixels inside Illustrator or clean the image elsewhere and bring it back. Pick by where the text sits and what is behind it.

Text near an edge: crop it off

Select the image and click Crop Image in the Properties panel. It works only on embedded images, and the cropped pixels are deleted for good. For a version you can undo later, draw a rectangle over the part you want to keep, select it with the image and choose Object > Clipping Mask > Make.

A flat graphic: trace it into shapes

For a logo, icon or simple flat illustration, Image Trace (Window > Image Trace) converts the picture into vector shapes. Click Expand afterwards and the letters become paths you can delete like outlined text. Tracing rebuilds the whole image, so edges and colours change, and it is no use on photographs.

A plain background: cover the words

Draw a rectangle over the words, choose the Eyedropper (I) and Shift-click the background next to them to sample the pixel colour, then set the stroke to none. Like a white box in Word, this only hides the words on screen. The original image, words included, is still in the .ai file and in any PDF you export, so use it for a layout fix, never for removing information.

A photo, gradient or texture: fix the image and relink it

Anything else has to be fixed in the image file. If the image is linked, select it and choose Edit Original in the Properties panel; the file opens in its default editor, usually Photoshop, and Illustrator offers to update the link when you save. If it is embedded, choose Unembed from the Links panel menu first. Illustrator saves the picture as a PSD or TIFF and links to that file instead. Then remove the words with whichever of these you have:

• Photoshop: paint over the words with the Remove tool, or select them and use Content-Aware Fill or Generative Fill.
• Free: open the file in Photopea in a browser or GIMP on the desktop and work the area with the clone or healing tool. Fine on flat colour, slow on photos.
• With AI: upload it to an image text remover, paint over the words and download the result, usually in about 15 seconds. Only the painted area changes; the rest comes back pixel for pixel at the same size. Three removals a day are free after you sign in.

Back in Illustrator, select the image, choose Relink in the Links panel and point it at the cleaned file. If the new file has the same pixel size as the old one, it lands in the same place at the same size, inside any clipping mask you had.

Which way when?

• Live type or outlines: select and delete. Nothing to repair.
• Text at the edge of a photo: Crop Image or a clipping mask.
• Simple flat logo or icon: Image Trace, then delete the letter paths.
• Plain background, file stays internal: a colour-matched rectangle, knowing the words are still there.
• Photo, gradient, texture or anything you will send: fix the image file and relink it.

Frequently asked questions

Before you send the cleaned image, zoom in on the spot where the words were; removing text without leaving a trace explains what a visible patch looks like and how to fix one. If you want new words in the same lettering rather than an empty space, see how to match the font in an image. Only remove text from images you have the right to edit; taking credits or signatures off someone else's work breaks our acceptable use policy.