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markd70743250
Known Participant
August 3, 2023
Question

Paste transparent PNG into InDesign black background bug returns in V. 18.5 Mac

  • August 3, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 4895 views

This was a bug that has come up multiple times over the years, and seemingly was solved for quite awhile, until now upon its return.

 

When you copy a transparent background PNG from Google Images (or any website) and paste it into InDesign, it will display a black box as the background.

 

If you paste the same image into Photoshop, copy that, paste it into InDesign, it will not show the black background. This step was not necessary up until this new update. It was working perfectly (no pasting into Photoshop first) for at least the last year.

 

This was working 100% flawlessly over the last year, but, is now broken in this new version on multiple Macs. Tried different browsers. Reset preferences, same issue.

 

 

3 replies

Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 17, 2023

You should avoid PNG images or copy & paste any image to InDesign. Save the images with transparency as. PSD or TIFF and import them via place. 

 

It was not a bug, it was a wrong file handling.

    C
    Cara5CC7
    Participant
    August 17, 2023

    I've been experiencing the same issue and regardless of correct or incorrect workflow. I found this method the most efficient way to complete certain jobs. I tried reverting to a previous version of InDesign, however the black background is still appearing.

      E
      Community Expert
      Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 4, 2023

      This is due to the alpha background in the network image - which is not compliant with how InDesign parses the image transparency.

      It's possible an update has reverted some behaviour - or perhaps the alpha channel is incorrect in the image.

       

      Regardless - copying images from the web and pasting them into InDesign is not a recommended workflow.

      It's always best to download the image and use File>Place

      And if the image has an issue with the transparency you will need to open it and save it correctly to rectify the issue.

       

      You can roll back to a previous version

      Rollback to a previous InDeisgn version

      https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html#:~:text=Open%20the%20Creative%20Cloud%20desktop,down%20list%2C%20select%20Other%20Versions.

       

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