Importing PNGs with Transparent Backgrounds

[_chlowil]

I'm not sure if Photoshop is the best application for the job, but I have a project that is stumping me. I need to import 300 PNGs with transparent backgrounds, and crop them each to the exact same size. Then, the images need to be placed the exact same distance away from each other to form a long, single image. This image then needs to be exported as a PNG file with a transparent background. The issue is, the PNGs won't open in Illustrator. I contacted Adobe Customer Support about a wekk ago and they were unable to open the images up on their end. But I need to retain the transparent background on these images. So my questions are as follows:

1. What is the best Adobe product for this job?

2. How do I import a PNG with a transparent background? (It hasn't been working at all!)

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

A PNG with a transparent background should open fine in Photoshop. It should open as a document with a single normal layer (no background layer). That is what you should produce as well, so after you copied several PNG's into one document, you should merge the layers into one layer, but not flatten the image. The trick is saving this. If you choose 'Save as...' and then PNG as file type, the image will be flattened. Instead, choose 'Export as...'. That will give you the opion to save as PNG and keep the transparency.