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glennm16330209
glennm16330209
Known Participant
September 1, 2023
Question

Copy & paste into another program turns the transparent background white

  • September 1, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 5144 views

Sort of what I said in the title 🙂 I've got a multi-layered file, and I'd like to copy just part of it to demonstrate what that bit looks like. All other layers are hidden, with a transparent background at the bottom. I tried using the Marquee tool, because that seemed to be the most appropriate.

  • The "Copy" command doesn't copy any of the effects on the layer.
  • The "Copy Merged" command includes the effects, but does that irritating thing where flattening or merging a whole image gives a white background

In fact, copying into any program besides Photoshop yields a white background. This is sort of a large problem for me, as I do it constantly. I'm in the process of migrating from GIMP, and copy/paste problems are driving me up the wall. There, if I copy something using the rectangle tool, even with other transparent layers below it, it copies exactly what you see.
Another weird example: if you have an image that is a single layer with an object, any transparent pixels will copy as black.

This is inconsistent with every single image program I had handy: copy/paste from Photoshop only works with Photoshop; copy/paste between any other image editor (or program that embed or use images) works perfectly fine. I spent a lot of time on Google and couldn't find any useful information, besides "export it as PNG and copy from there", which really isn't useful.
Please, is there a way to fix any of this? [This is Windows 24.7.0 on Windows 10]

    2 replies

    rayek.elfin
    rayek.elfin
    Legend
    September 1, 2023

    Welcome to the wonderful world of Photoshop where the grass is always greener. 😉

     

    As you are just discovering for yourself, Photoshop is an age-old enigma with many outstanding small bugs and niggles. Copying bitmaps that include transparency from one application to another is one of those "niggles". Or as Photoshop users tend to call them: "Expected Behavioural Feature" (EBF).

     

    Congrats on finding your first EBF! You are on your way to become a seasoned Photoshop professional. We deal with these on a daily basis. Allow me to explain more about this particular EBF!

     

    So...

    Copying a layer with transparency works fine from other applications and between PhotoLine, Affinity Photo, Gimp, and Krita. Old Freehand even accepts the pasted bitmap with transparency! CC Animate also knows how to paste it properly. LibreOffice? No Problemo!

    (PS Don't attempt to copy these from either Freehand or Animate back into other apps: transparency is lost.) Even InDesign works as expected with other software unless Photoshop is used to copy an image with transparency: it will paste with a background.

     

    Copying and pasting in Inkscape also works without any issues, retaining the transparency.

    (Btw, in other image editor software it is often not even necessary to create a selection before copying: merely selecting the layer will work. Again a Photoshop EBF! Yay!)

     

    It is an age-old EBF in Photoshop with no real solution. In this particular case Photoshop doesn't play well (at all) with other applications - even within the scope of Adobe's own software.

     

    I believe I read somewhere that Photoshop does very odd things with images that are copied to the clipboard (something to do with a pointer in the copied image data itself that links to the alpha in Photoshop. Which means Photoshop must be open for the copy action to function! How droll.

    Even going so far that when you copy part of the image in Photoshop, and close Photoshop: the clipboard is emptied out! (On Windows, that is)

     

    I do agree with you that this "feature" (EBF) just wastes precious time and breaks the flow. No idea if the Photoshop devs will ever come around fixing this issue or other long LONG outstanding EBFs. We can only wallow in despair until they do (if ever)...

     

    The solution is indeed to export to a file (one that supports transparency such as PNG) and import that in your other application. Or vice versa: export a transparent PNG or PSD from the other design app for import into Photoshop. (Are you a lazy person? Paste straight into Photoshop and remove the background with that snazzy new background removal tool! Pixels will be affected though!)

    Perhaps someone made a script or plugin to work around this EBF?

     

    Again, welcome to Photoshop! Stay a while, stay forever!

     

    (To be fair, copying transparent images between apps is rather dependent on the software used. For example, 32bit versions of image editors seem to be problematic, while the 64bit version work mostly fine in Windows 10 -- well, that is except for Photoshop, of course!)

    glennm16330209
    glennm16330209Author
    Known Participant
    September 2, 2023

    Oh. Well. At least it's not just me. As you say, almost literally any other application that involves copy/paste with alpha channels works fine (did you know that you can paste directly into OneNote?). I note that "Quick export as PNG" does not export transparency in the PNG export (does that count as an EBF?), so I have to sit through the "Export as..." window. Also, the default keybind of CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+W is glorious.

     

    I finally waffled myself into picking up the whole CC subscription, and to its credit, Photoshop has some tools that vastly simplify what is otherwise some very irritating and time-consuming things in Gimp that I do all the time. I'm still in the "smashing my face against the wall" stage, like trying to figure out why things that should be simple, such as resizing the shape of a marquee box, is so much harder in Photoshop (in Gimp, for example, the marquee rectangle has handles. Drag to resize. Done.) Oh, and the backwards mouse tilt/scroll is pretty funny. You can fix that easily with the "X-Mouse Button Control", which literally has a checkbox for "Swap tilt shift only in a Photoshop window", but I find it amusing.

     

    Well, at least the vast majority of my exports are going into Premiere, which reads them correctly (even the Quick PNG export), so who knows. Good to know I'm not crazy or Doing It Wrong.

    rayek.elfin
    rayek.elfin
    Legend
    September 2, 2023

    Funny you mention the PNG export: 8-bit indexed export used to support full transparency, but according to the Photoshop dev team this "was a mistake" and they "fixed" that. Which means it is no longer possible to export 8bit indexed PNG files with full transparency. This is indeed a beautiful example of an EBF 😉

     

    You also mention the selections: I agree that that's another EBF. In PhotoLine, for example, just like Gimp, selection handles are standard. No need to activate these.

     

    Another EBF: just about any other design app sets the middle mouse button to pan the view (aside from holding down the space bar). It is quick and efficient. Not so in Photoshop, of course.

     

    I could go on. Yet alternative image editors have their own EBFs, of course. No software is perfect. Photoshop does a number of things very, very well, and it is easy to overlook its faults (although for my own personal work I have long left Photoshop; too many EBFs working against my workflow).

    Kevin Stohlmeyer
    Community Expert
    Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 1, 2023

    Hi @glennm16330209 other programs may not support alpha channel or masked transparency. Copying from Photoshop copies the pixel data, not the effects applied on a layer. Most MS programs will accept importing a PSD or other transparent supporting format from Photoshop - not requiring a copy/paste.

     

    Anything else is going to either yeild you a background color due to lack of transparency support and definitely wont paste in with applied Photoshop effects.

     

    The advice you recieved is the best option to transfer with transparency and applied effects - save as a transparent PNG and open in the other software.

     

    Transp layer in PS with effects (drop shadow)

     

    Copied/pasted layer - no transparency and no drop shadow

    Worse with masks - original w mask and effect

    Paste ignores mask

     

     

     

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