Pixian
AI
image background removal
SHOW HN2023
How HN took it
16 positive, 22 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 22 critical, out of 66 comments about the project. Thread score -0.11.
Pricing: 3 for, 6 againstPerformance: 7 for, 2 againstIdea: 1 for, 7 againstDesign: 2 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 3 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Results are accurate and fast, especially for hair and portraits.
From 4 comments
Tried couple of pics, it's way better than other services and pricing of it seems really good! Thanks for the app!
peyloride on HNI've tried lots of free services of background removal, this is definitely one of the best one and it's fast. Thanks for the tool.
thrdbndndn on HNLove it. It also provide highres output out of the box. 100% I will be a customer, albeit my yearly needs are in single digit range.
avereveard on HNI will give this a try, but I’ve been happy to shell out for a few credits on remove.bg when intricate hair strands were involved [in isolating portraits]. Whatever they do just…
tpowell on HN
Pay-as-you-go pricing with non-expiring credits is reasonable.
From 3 comments
Thanks. I appreciate unexpiring credits and think that’s a super reasonable price. Again, thanks for your work. I don’t want to criticize and am glad you built this. I just like…
prepend on HNSomething like that seems eminently reasonable. Low dollar amount for enough uses that I don't need to think too much every time I press the execute button. Reasonable expiration…
ghaff on HNI appreciate the free tier with resolution-limited downloads. And you've priced the middle tier right, because I wouldn't hesitate to drop five bucks even if I didn't know how…
gnicholas on HN
Honest comparison with competitors.
From 1 comment
I really like the honest comparison with competitor. At first I was confused because I'm so accustomed to the adverts containing bogus comparisons.
scotty79 on HN
Objections
Free while in beta makes businesses wary of relying on it.
From 2 comments
This is interesting. I signed up and will give the API a try. Just so you know, you being "free while in beta" is concerning to me as a business customer. I would be much more…
sebastiennight on HNWithout annoying subscriptions "yet". The "free while in beta" statement and the title of this submission contradict themselves. I'm also curious what exactly is your goal with…
skilled on HN
Local or on-device tools like macOS Preview and phones already do this for free.
From 3 comments
macOS does this natively. There's models that can run in the browser literally so any premise on discounting doesn't exactly pan out lol
villgax on HNOn iOS you can long tap on a subject and then save it as an image. Mac OS has a similar feature on right click and Preview :)
edu on HNI recently found out that on MacOS, the Preview app can do image background removal it’s pretty good at it too!
koliber on HN
Retaining image records indefinitely is a privacy concern.
From 1 comment
>Retention >Records not associated with an account are deleted or anonymized within a year of creation. Image processing records associated with an account are retained…
hovering_nox on HN
Hard to buy small amounts of credits; the $5 minimum is high for occasional use.
From 1 comment
This falls victim to the inability to do microtransactions online. I love the philosophy and reasoning for starting yet another background removal service, but as someone that…
nathancahill on HN
Requests
Support HEIC images.
From 1 comment
Doesn't seem to accept .heic photos, which is really odd given that the majority of new photos in the US are probably created in that format.
markdown on HN
Offer interactive editing or masking controls.
From 2 comments
The main challenge and deficiency with this and other services like this is that they assume some content type to be foreground - here it is likely "portrait" style people - it's…
kookamamie on HNWhich model are you using? There are a bunch of different background removal models, many with configuration options, but most of the services only provide one and without…
jacob019 on HN
Add a GIMP plugin or Android web app icon.
From 2 comments
Is something with this functionality available as a Gimp plugin?
Aardwolf on HNAdding it to HomeScreen as a WebApp on Android, creates a link without a logo. Could you make it appear like other WebApps, like Squoosh?
high_priest on HN
Resize oversized images instead of rejecting them.
From 1 comment
I tried with a random photo from my mobile phone, it complains that the image is too large. This is bad UX to me. The webapp could resize it for me
peter-m80 on HN
Questions
Which model is used?
From 1 comment
Which model are you using? There are a bunch of different background removal models, many with configuration options, but most of the services only provide one and without…
jacob019 on HN
How do the quality percentages above 100% work?
From 1 comment
Ok; two things: 1. For "objects" and "artwork" it says that quality is above 100% (108% and 119% respectively), which is weird and doesn't inspire confidence? It's also unclear…
bambax on HN
Where and how to pay after signing up?
From 1 comment
Hi, I like this, tried it out and it performed pretty well. I signed up. It says in the pricing section that 2Mpx images are free, although my test image was larger than that. My…
Udo on HN
Alternatives named
remove.bg
From 2 comments
There is also remove.bg
Alifatisk on HNremove.bg is great, and they handle hair really well. But so do we! Give us a shot next time ;)
jacobn on HN
Photoroom
From 1 comment
Background removal is becoming a commodity but at the same time being top quality is an essential block of building quality software. We built photoroom and removing background…
matthieurouif on HN
Preview on macOS
From 2 comments
How does it compare to Command+Shift+K in Preview on Mac OS?
WizardClickBoy on HNI recently found out that on MacOS, the Preview app can do image background removal it’s pretty good at it too!
koliber on HN
Adobe Express
From 1 comment
https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/remove-background does it for free. You do have to create a free acount in order to download the image though.
lucianfelix on HN
Local open source models like U2NET and rembg
From 2 comments
You can do this yourself for free, using the U2NET model... Either client-side or server side. https://github.com/xuebinqin/U-2-Net Pretty trivial thing to implement.
seper8 on HNThere's some mention that this can be self-hosted, but it's not that easy. Even a pre-trained model and self-hosted API like RemBG[0] performs a lot worse than this "pixian"…
tmikaeld on HN