I've noticed that sometimes when we save an image and open it with Adobe Photoshop, the "white" background turns "black".
For example, when I view this image using Chrome, this is what I see:
However, when I saved the file to my computer ("right-click" → "Save image as..") then open the file with Photoshop CS5, this is what I see:
Why does the "white" part of an image turn "black" after saving?
88 Answers
This issue occurs when copying images with transparency. The part you're referring to as white (that turns black) isn't really white, it's transparent.
When you copy a *.png image, what you technically do is save it in your clipboard; but there's a problem: your clipboard is only capable of storing *.bmp images. So the system converts the *.png image to a *.bmp before storing it at your clipboard. Now here's your problem: *.bmp does not support alpha channels (transparency). So what happens to the transparent pixels? they become black.
So the most straightforward solution is to just not use your clipboard (tl;dr): Save the image to a file, and open the file in Photoshop.
9It's because it has transparency. And different applications may have different default background colors. In Firefox your picture is shown with a dark gray background.
9This issue appears when a PNG is saved with indexed color in CS5 and below.
Photoshop cannot properly display PNG files that have indexed color for transparency because of the way the transparency data is embedded in the alpha palette versus being stored in a separate alpha mask.
The result is Photoshop reading the RGB components of each indexed color and ignoring the the transparency data embedded in the alpha palette of the image. In a normally-saved PNG, this data would be included in a separate alpha mask and be read appropriately by the program. In this case, with the transparency data unable to be read, the image background turns black.
You can read more about this here: Why can't Photoshop properly open this PNG?
Later versions of Photoshop are able to display indexed color PNGs with their intended transparency.
Yep - the linked picture definitely has a transparent background. Confirmed with GIMP as shown below.
As for why your transparent background looks black in PhotoShop may be linked to this:
Chose background colour in PhotoShop <-- Hopefully will lead you in the right direction.
I think you just need to change the Application Background colour back to transparent instead of black.
From what I understand, it's a matter of the PNG using indexed color for transparency... something Photoshop doesn't like to handle.
More on it at the Graphic Design StackExchange.
I opened my image with "Paint" and then I saved it as a .bmp and it had a message that popped up saying "by saving this image you will lose your transparency". When I saved it, the background turned white!
Yes, transparent backgrounds print from CPS black. Before I print from CPS I set the background layer WHITE, then print - even for png's. When I save the picture, I turn off the background layer and save as png. Then when its displayed in a website or whatever, the background is transparent. Work with the background layer and its a simple fix. Though, Corel should allow for transparent printing.
Photo Gallery saves the transparency of png images with a black background. Paint saves them as a white background.
