: Copy & Pasting from Photoshop to Illustrator loses transparency I often run into this issue. I'm creating a file in Photoshop with masked layers etc. I want to make the final output available

@Sherry646

You can do this:


In PS: Save some transparency tif with layers
In Ai: Place it.
Edit in PS > Save > Auto updated in AI > Make Copy in your Ai file >
Embed the copy.

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@BetL875

I had put an image in Photoshop with the object that I wanted to have transparent. I selected it with the polygonal lasso tool and pasted the selection in a new Photoshop file. Then in this new file I deleted the layer containing the white background (with opening the new file it also gave me the option background contents--> transparent).Then I saved the file as .png. Then I opened the png in Illustrator and clicked export and saved it again as .png.

This last .png is transparent. Maybe the first .png is also transparent, I don't know, but this works for me.

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@Deb5748823

Exporting as PNG answer makes the most sense to me.

If you are determined not to save a file you can apply a background layer with a matching colour of your Illustrator document and then Copy Merged & Paste. It's a bit mad but will get the job done.

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@Gail6891361

Try saving the file in a vector format that Illustrator would recognize. Also remember that Illustrator is a vector based program where as photoshop is more for images. So one thing that is a certain way in photoshop maybe different in Illustrator

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@Pope1402555

Instead of Copy/Pasting, save as a PNG in Photoshop, then open in Illustrator.

This will preserve transparency :)

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@Vandalay110

I don't think this is possible (I'm on Windows 7) without saving the file first. This is probably not a limitation of Photoshop since you can copy and paste transparency within the application.

Quick tip: No need to merge your layers. Select the area, then Ctrl + Shift + C (Windows), and you'll copy all of the layers.

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@Tiffany317

I'm not sure why you're rasterizing the layers, nor why you would want to copy and paste rather than place the image in AI. If there isn't a vital reason for that workflow, Place the PSD in Illustrator (File > Place) instead. All of the transparency is preserved, layers are intact.

Once the image is placed, you can embed it if necessary. One of the embed options is to flatten all layers, which also preserves transparency. If you don't flatten, "Convert Layers to Objects" opens up various possibilities for subsequent editing.

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