Very poor quality PNG exports in 25.1, regardless of settings or save method

[StudioAluminum]

Since upgrading to 25.1, I have been unable to save a high quality PNG, regardless of what sampling method I choose, whether I use the "Export As…", "Quick Export", or "Save for Web" option. All saves result in poor quality edges around the transparency. Some sampling options offer a slight improvement but nothing near the quality that should be exported. See screenshot for the export preview on right and resulting export on left.

While I'm at it, when will Adobe implement modern compression technology into your PNG-24 exports. They can be much smaller without having to resort to a PNG-8. I used to use the TinyPNG Photoshop plugin — which would get my PNG-24s s down to nearly half the size that PS exports them at — but it is not longer compatible with my new M2 Mac. This is widely used compression technology at this point, so I can't understand how it isn't baked into PS already.

[Sameer K]

Hey, @StudioAluminum. I'll help you figure this out. Please share a sample PSD & the system info from Photoshop Help > System info > Copy & paste into a text document > upload & attach here.

Does this happen when you open the PNG export in Adobe Bridge or any other file viewer?

In Photoshop > Go to Photoshop > Settings > Export > Enable 'Use legacy "Export As" > OK to save changes > Restart Photoshop > try again.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

Sameer K

[StudioAluminum]

Thank you. OK, so…

The way I did this origially was opening up a vector EPS of the image, resizing it, then attempting the Export (in many different ways, all with similar results). Since it was just a one-off export, I didn't save an actual PSD of it. 

I just opened the same file back up and made the same size adjustments to send you the System Info, but before I did, I tried the export again, and this time it turned out fine. To the best of my knowledge, nothing is different. I didn't even quite and restart Photoshop — I simply haven't used it (or changed any settings) since I had this issue. (Ended up exporting the PNGs through Illustrator instead). 

So, it seems to have fixed itself. If you happen to have any idea how this could have happened (so I avoid it in the future), I'm all ears!

[D Fosse]

How did it arrive at the 600 x 600 pixel size? Was it created at that size, or downsampled from a bigger file? This looks almost like downsampling with the "nearest neighbor" algorithm.

How does it display in the Export window? It's impossible to judge here without the same dark background.

Since you have Photoshop at View > 200%, you apparently understand that this is how the native MacOS applications display it too: one image pixel represented by 4 screen pixels. While ensuring consistency, it obviously exaggerates pixelation.

[StudioAluminum]

How did it arrive at the 600 x 600 pixel size? Was it created at that size, or downsampled from a bigger file? This looks almost like downsampling with the "nearest neighbor" algorithm.

By @D Fosse

It was created from a vector EPS opened in Photoshop, and the image document itself was sized to 600 x 600 prior to exporting. (So, not bitmap image resizing issues, and it wasn't resized during export).

How does it display in the Export window? It's impossible to judge here without the same dark background.

The screenshot shows how it displays in the export window. The export preview is the right-hand image, the resulting image is the lefthand image. Yes it would be easier to see the difference if the backgrounds were the same, but the difference is apparent regardless. If you open the image in a new tab and zoom to 100%, it's even clearer.

Since you have Photoshop at View > 200%, you apparently understand that this is how the native MacOS applications display it too: one image pixel represented by 4 screen pixels. While ensuring consistency, it obviously exaggerates pixelation.

Yes, I very much understand. They are zoomed at 200% so it's easier to see how poor quality the export is. The amount pixelation demonstrated in the exported image is not at all close to the results I've gotten exporting PNG-24s for years. It's not of usable quality.