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ahpatchett
ahpatchett
Inspiring
April 9, 2026
Answered

Beta Adobe Express Feature With InDesign - Remove background, but won't export as .png

  • April 9, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 61 views

I’m using InDesign to create a magazine. I’d like to remove the background for some of the photos I’ve placed. Usually I would use:

Edit > Edit with… > Photoshop

However, ‘Photoshop’ isn’t popping up as an option. Instead, Adobe Express Beta is the only usable option. As such, I tried using Adobe Express’s new Beta feature to remove the background. 

It does a great job-- however, once you hit ‘APPLY’, it seems to automatically save the photo as a .jpg without giving you the option to save it as any other file type (that I can find, anyway). This makes the whole thing a bit pointless, as the background is just white instead of transparent due to the file type. 

For context, the pages are black. A white box for a background is worse than if I just left the normal background. 

I might just be unfamiliar with the new feature, but is there any way to save those images as a .png instead of the automatic .jpg? It would be really convenient if not for this hiccup. I can still use Photoshop, it will just take longer.

Thanks!

    Correct answer ahpatchett

    Hi all! The post itself had a lot of information crammed in, and I’ve found some solutions, but I wanted to compile them here so anyone who has the same problem later can find the solution quickly.

    NOTE: I have a decent amount of experience with Illustrator and Photoshop, and limited experience with InDesign and Adobe Express. 

    Adobe Express Beta (InDesign) doesn’t preserve transparency when editing
    It does, under the right conditions. It will save your file as the original file type. So:
    > Editing a .PNG > Saves as a .PNG > Preserves transparency
    > Editing a .JPG > Saves as a .JPG > Does not preserve transparency
    As far as I can tell, it doesn’t let you change this while saving.

    Solution: I’ll just be using Photoshop for now. It’s not worth changing all my images to .PNG ahead of time when it would take the same amount of time/effort to just use Photoshop, just for it to be lower quality, haha.

    Photoshop (InDesign) unavailable (greyed out)
    I needed to send in a working version earlier in the day and embedded all my images (I worked in production art for a few years [Illustrator for apparel though, not InDesign], so it’s just force of habit to make sure I dot my i’s and cross my t’s, even if it’s not necessary). I realized later that InDesign’s ‘Edit With’ feature doesn’t work with embedded images.

    Solution: I just relinked all my image files and used Photoshop in the end

    .PNG vs .TIFF/.PSD
    .TIFF or .PSD are both higher quality files, and would definitely be preferred. In this specific case I was working on smaller images, so .PNG wouldn’t have hurt much; I also assumed Adobe Express Beta wouldn’t have the ability yet to save files as .TIFF/.PSD, since it’s just meant to be a ‘quick edit’ type of tool-- and I thought that the ability to save as .PNG or .JPG would be a lot more likely. 

    Solution: Since I ended up using Photoshop, I did just save all the edits I made as .TIFF

    FINAL CONCLUSION: If somewhere down the road Adobe Express Beta becomes a little more customizable, it will probably be a useful tool within InDesign for quick, simple edits. It’s a little too new right now, so it’s features are limited. Might work in some circumstances still, but in this case it was easier to use Photoshop.

    Thank you everyone for your help!

    2 replies

    ahpatchett
    ahpatchettAuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    April 9, 2026

    Hi all! The post itself had a lot of information crammed in, and I’ve found some solutions, but I wanted to compile them here so anyone who has the same problem later can find the solution quickly.

    NOTE: I have a decent amount of experience with Illustrator and Photoshop, and limited experience with InDesign and Adobe Express. 

    Adobe Express Beta (InDesign) doesn’t preserve transparency when editing
    It does, under the right conditions. It will save your file as the original file type. So:
    > Editing a .PNG > Saves as a .PNG > Preserves transparency
    > Editing a .JPG > Saves as a .JPG > Does not preserve transparency
    As far as I can tell, it doesn’t let you change this while saving.

    Solution: I’ll just be using Photoshop for now. It’s not worth changing all my images to .PNG ahead of time when it would take the same amount of time/effort to just use Photoshop, just for it to be lower quality, haha.

    Photoshop (InDesign) unavailable (greyed out)
    I needed to send in a working version earlier in the day and embedded all my images (I worked in production art for a few years [Illustrator for apparel though, not InDesign], so it’s just force of habit to make sure I dot my i’s and cross my t’s, even if it’s not necessary). I realized later that InDesign’s ‘Edit With’ feature doesn’t work with embedded images.

    Solution: I just relinked all my image files and used Photoshop in the end

    .PNG vs .TIFF/.PSD
    .TIFF or .PSD are both higher quality files, and would definitely be preferred. In this specific case I was working on smaller images, so .PNG wouldn’t have hurt much; I also assumed Adobe Express Beta wouldn’t have the ability yet to save files as .TIFF/.PSD, since it’s just meant to be a ‘quick edit’ type of tool-- and I thought that the ability to save as .PNG or .JPG would be a lot more likely. 

    Solution: Since I ended up using Photoshop, I did just save all the edits I made as .TIFF

    FINAL CONCLUSION: If somewhere down the road Adobe Express Beta becomes a little more customizable, it will probably be a useful tool within InDesign for quick, simple edits. It’s a little too new right now, so it’s features are limited. Might work in some circumstances still, but in this case it was easier to use Photoshop.

    Thank you everyone for your help!

    E
    Community Expert
    Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 10, 2026

    ****script offer****

    I have a script that checks for images that are not embedded and embeds them when saving, It’s a workflow I’ve used for years and no issues. If you want I can share with you just drop me a DM. 

    If you need a script to roundtrip to other file formats I’ve been doing that too with a script. If it’s something you are interested in we can start another thread and delve in there to your specific needs.

    ********************

    Ok back to the post.

    Good summary, but there are a couple of key points worth making clearer.

    Adobe Express isn’t converting file types, it simply preserves whatever the original format was. So if you start with a JPG, it stays a JPG, which means no transparency even if the background is removed. That’s the root of the issue.

    It’s also worth separating “background removal” from “transparency” they’re not the same thing. You only get real transparency if the format supports it (PNG, PSD, TIFF).

    On the workflow side, the reason Photoshop is greyed out is because it’s an external editor and requires linked files, whereas Adobe Express can work on embedded images since it’s integrated. That part is expected behaviour rather than a bug.

    For print workflows, PNG isn’t ideal anyway, PSD or TIFF is the better route as they support transparency, higher quality, and (in the case of PSD) editable layers in InDesign.

    Also worth noting, embedding isn’t necessary for print, it’s something I do too, for other reasons, but you can keep files linked and package at the end is also a clean expected workflow.

    At that point, the practical options are:

    • Convert to PNG/PSD/TIFF before using Express, or
    • Just use Photoshop and save to PSD/TIFF

    Anything else is really working around the limitation rather than solving it.

    leo.r
    Community Expert
    leo.rCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 9, 2026

    However, ‘Photoshop’ isn’t popping up as an option

     

    While I’m not sure why Photoshop isn’t there, you can use the ‘Other’ menu and select Photoshop. I think Photoshop then should appear in the list (as you may know anyway).

     

    (I don’t have an answer regarding your Adobe Express issue).

      ahpatchett
      ahpatchettAuthor
      Inspiring
      April 9, 2026

      I might have worked it out! (Photoshop, not Adobe Express Beta unfortunately)

      I had all my images embedded, rather than linked. So I can’t use Photoshop, but Adobe Express is still an option since it’s still working within InDesign? We circle back to: could be really useful, if not for the exported image being .jpg haha.

      There were a few times where I would try to use ‘Edit With...’ and the only thing on the menu would be Adobe Express, without even listing other options greyed out. But that might just be an integration issue since it’s a beta feature, only happened once or twice.

      I’m also semi new to InDesign, I’ve been working with it for about a year :] So there’s some trial and error on my end too. For now I’ll have to re-link my photos if I want to use the Photoshop feature, and then just remember to embed them again before sending it for print.

      ...Or hopefully figure out the Adobe Express thing.
       

       

      leo.r
      Community Expert
      leo.rCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 9, 2026

      You can unembed links from the Links panel:

       

       

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