diff --git a/helpers/add-background.js b/helpers/add-background.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..515c44b78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers/add-background.js
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+
+const path = require('path');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const SVGO = require('svgo');
+
+const openmojis = require("../data/openmoji.json");
+
+const {
+    createDoc
+} = require('../test/utils/utils');
+
+svgo = new SVGO();
+
+openmojis.forEach(emoji => {
+    const svgFile = path.join("src", emoji.group, emoji.subgroups, emoji.hexcode + '.svg')
+    const doc = createDoc(emoji);
+
+    const root = doc.querySelector("#emoji")
+
+    // create background and insert it
+    const backgroundGroup = doc.createElement('g')
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('id', "white-padding")
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('stroke-linecap', "round")
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('stroke-miterlimit', "10")
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('stroke-width', "6")
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('stroke', "#fff")
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('fill', "none")
+    backgroundGroup.setAttribute('stroke-linejoin', "round")
+
+    const beforeNode = doc.querySelector("#grid").nextSibling
+    root.insertBefore(backgroundGroup, beforeNode)
+
+
+    // duplicate all but grid
+    var nongrid = doc.querySelectorAll('svg > :not(#grid):not(#white-padding)');
+    console.log(nongrid.length);
+    for (var value of nongrid.values()) {
+        console.log(value.id);
+
+        backgroundGroup.appendChild(value.cloneNode(true))
+    }
+
+    // remove fill and stroke attributes
+    var items = backgroundGroup.getElementsByTagName("*");
+    for (let item of items) {
+        item.removeAttribute("fill");
+        item.removeAttribute("stroke");
+        item.removeAttribute("stroke-linecap");
+        item.removeAttribute("stroke-linejoin");
+        item.removeAttribute("stroke-miterlimit");
+        item.removeAttribute("stroke-width");
+    }
+
+    svgo.optimize(doc.documentElement.querySelector("svg").outerHTML).then(function (result) {
+        svgo.optimize(result.data).then(function (result) {
+
+            fs.writeFile(svgFile, result.data, function (err) {
+                if (err) return console.log(err);
+                console.log('Successful');
+            });
+        });
+    });
+})
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index e0e767a15..e0038a3c4 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -32,7 +32,8 @@
     "generate": "./helpers/generate.sh",
     "generate-font": "./helpers/generate-fonts.sh",
     "cache-clear": "for ref in export-png-618 export-png-72 export-svg-color export-svg-skintones pretty-src-svg; do git update-ref -d refs/memos/$ref; done",
-    "cc": "npm run cache-clear"
+    "cc": "npm run cache-clear",
+    "add-background": "node helpers/add-background.js --openmoji-src-folder $PWD/src"
   },
   "engines": {
     "node": "8.x"