• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
1

PNG not placing with transparency in illustrator cc

Participant ,
Jan 24, 2019 Jan 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I cannot get a transparent png file into my Ai document. They come in with a black background.

I have never had this issue before-till this week. I used to work with these all the time!

Is there some setting that i may have inadvertently checked off?  the png was saved correctly out of photoshop, and I can see the transparency in bridge.

Importing photoshop files with transparency is still working fine. it's only PNGs that are the problem.

anyone? thanks!

Views

79.6K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 4 Correct answers

Participant , Jan 24, 2019 Jan 24, 2019

I've tried all methods. dragging from finder, dragging from bridge, using place command.

I've triedembedding, using various view options.

It used to work fine for me too.

something mysterious has happened just in the last week, and i have no idea what.

although, the one thing that i forgot to try and i just did- use older PNGs (not recently created ones.)

success!

That narrows it down. I must be having a Photoshop problem, not an illustrator problem.

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Beginner , Mar 18, 2019 Mar 18, 2019

I think I've I figured it out… 16bits/Channel.. my source .psd files are set to 16bit/Channel, and retain it on the export to .png, with which Illustrator doesn't like, changing it to 8bit per channel color and exporting seems to avoid the glitch in illustrator, though it supports 16 bit .psd files no issue.

Gonna batch process all of these to 8bit now.

Votes

Translate

Translate
New Here , Feb 05, 2021 Feb 05, 2021

In case anyone is still running into this issue in 2021. 

I attempted to import a PNG-8 as saved in the "export for web legacy" panel. Apparently Illustrator does not recognize this PNG type as far as transparency is concerned. 

I was successful with placing the image in illustrator once I resaved the image as a PNG-24. 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Beginner , Jun 15, 2021 Jun 15, 2021

I encountered the same issue. The affected png files were set up in indexed colour mode. After changing to RGB mode the transparency was effective in Illustrator.

Votes

Translate

Translate
Adobe
Participant ,
Jan 24, 2019 Jan 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

also, I did try various methods of saving the PNG, as I thought mabye "save for web was the problem, but when i "saved as" a PNG from photoshop, it was an even worse result. once again, it looked fine in bridge. but when placed in illustrator, the whole thing looks like a broken up noise pattern.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Advocate ,
Jan 24, 2019 Jan 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

How are you placing them? I've tried it now with a bunch of png's and they are all coming in fine

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Participant ,
Jan 24, 2019 Jan 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I've tried all methods. dragging from finder, dragging from bridge, using place command.

I've triedembedding, using various view options.

It used to work fine for me too.

something mysterious has happened just in the last week, and i have no idea what.

although, the one thing that i forgot to try and i just did- use older PNGs (not recently created ones.)

success!

That narrows it down. I must be having a Photoshop problem, not an illustrator problem.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Mar 18, 2019 Mar 18, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I'm having this issue. These PNGs were created in Photoshop. I've tried re-exporting but none of them will place in illustrator without looking like this. They look fine in everything else, including placing them back into Photoshop comps as a smart object or smart link… Only thing working for use in Illustrator is to save them to another format again… like .psd… I would really like to use the lighter weight library in .png that I made. [all these images are with alpha channel/transparency]… Adobe, please fix.

Screen Shot 2019-03-18 at 11.18.41 AM.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Mar 18, 2019 Mar 18, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Can you post the original file? Because only with the screenshot it will be impossible to fix.

Also: post it to http://illustrator.uservoice.com That's the place where the engineers are.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Mar 18, 2019 Mar 18, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I think I've I figured it out… 16bits/Channel.. my source .psd files are set to 16bit/Channel, and retain it on the export to .png, with which Illustrator doesn't like, changing it to 8bit per channel color and exporting seems to avoid the glitch in illustrator, though it supports 16 bit .psd files no issue.

Gonna batch process all of these to 8bit now.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 05, 2019 Nov 05, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I am having this same problem - how does one change something to 8bit?  In plain english please I am not so great at understanding some jargon 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 05, 2019 Nov 05, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

This is explained in the documentation:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/image-essentials.html

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 16, 2020 May 16, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The image mode option(s) may resolve your issue.

I changed my 8-bit (transparent background).png image file from indexed color to RGB color in Photoshop (CC) and dragged it from my desktop into an opened Adobe Illustrator (CC) .ai file. The transparent background remained after that procedure.

ImageModeOptions.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
May 17, 2020 May 17, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Please show.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 17, 2020 May 17, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

ImageMode_IndexedColor.png

IMAGE MODE - Indexed Color 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ImageMode_RGB.png

IMAGE MODE - RGB 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 17, 2020 May 17, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 17, 2020 May 17, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

IMAGE_MODE_Indexed_Color_PhotoshopCC.png

IMAGE MODE - Indexed Color

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

IMAGE_MODE_RGB_PhotoshopCC.png

IMAGE MODE - RGB

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Dec 14, 2021 Dec 14, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Oh god thank you so much! 

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 07, 2022 Jan 07, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

this should be the top answer.  changing my image mode to rgb from indexed fixed my problem anyway.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 07, 2022 Jan 07, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

quote

this should be the top answer.  changing my image mode to rgb from indexed fixed my problem anyway.


By @Brian5C49

 

There are several different issues with PNG files.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 07, 2022 Jan 07, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

"There are several different issues with PNG files." that's fair but the "correct answer" does not provide a solution and should not be considered "correct answer" at the least.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 07, 2022 Jan 07, 2022

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Fair argument.

 

I marked several others as correct.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Mar 21, 2023 Mar 21, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

It worked perfectly!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 26, 2020 Nov 26, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I'm having this problem persist even after resetting Photoshop's image mode to RGB 8 bit. Trying to finish an assignment in Illustrator; frustrated...

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Nov 26, 2020 Nov 26, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Are you comfortable with uploading one of your images here so I can see what you having difficulties with?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 04, 2020 Dec 04, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

same! this is infuriating and completly disrupting my workflow

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Dec 05, 2020 Dec 05, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Jessicama,

I solved it by exporting the PNGs from an older version of Photoshop. Not a great solution... but it worked

c

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Dec 06, 2020 Dec 06, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Can you share such a file?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines