Most "photo editor" side projects stop at crop and filters. I wanted to see how far I could push a purely in-browser editor before it needed a backend — so I built PhotoEditor.se, and ended up shipping AI background removal, upscaling, generative fill, and object removal, all running from a canvas-based editor with no install and no signup required to start editing.
Here's what the stack and feature set look like, and a few things I learned along the way.
What it does
- Full canvas editor: crop, resize, rotate/flip, layers, shapes, text with font/animation options
- Filters and adjustments: brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, blur
- AI tools: background removal, image upscaling, photo enhancement, generative fill, object removal
- Batch export: apply the same edits to multiple images and download as a ZIP
- Presets for common social formats (Instagram square/story, YouTube thumbnail, Twitter banner, etc.)
Why no-signup-to-edit mattered
The biggest UX decision was letting people start editing immediately — drop an image, start working, no account wall. Signup only shows up at export/download. This alone cut a huge amount of drop-off compared to earlier versions that gated the editor itself.
The AI tooling problem
Background removal and generative fill are the expensive part of a project like this — both in compute and in keeping quality consistent across arbitrary user photos (weird lighting, busy backgrounds, low resolution uploads). Getting these to feel "good enough" for casual users (not professional retouching quality, but good enough for a product photo or a profile picture) took more iteration than the rest of the editor combined.
What's next
Working on higher AI usage limits for batch workflows and expanding the preset library (currently 200+ purpose-built editing pages for specific use cases like wedding photos, product shots, and social thumbnails).
If you want to poke at it: https://photoeditor.se — free to use, no signup needed to edit. Would genuinely like feedback from other devs on where the AI output quality falls short.
Top comments (0)