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Why Won’t Photoshop Let Me Save as a PNG?

Last updated on September 24, 2022 @ 12:37 am

When you try to save a Photoshop file as a PNG, you may get an error message that says “This program cannot save in the PNG format.” Why can’t Photoshop save as a PNG?

There are a few reasons. First, PNG is a lossless format, meaning that no data is lost when the file is compressed.

That’s great for preserving image quality, but it also means that the file size is usually larger than a JPEG or other lossy format. And since Photoshop is a bitmap editor, it doesn’t work well with large file sizes.

PRO TIP: If you are trying to save a file as a PNG and Photoshop will not let you, it is most likely because the file is already in PNG format.

Second, PNG uses an alpha channel to support transparency. Photoshop doesn’t support transparency in images, so it can’t save PNG files with an alpha channel.

Finally, Photoshop uses the RGB color model while PNG uses the RGBA color model. The A in RGBA stands for alpha, which is used for transparency. Since Photoshop doesn’t support transparency, it can’t save files in the RGBA color model.

So why would you want to use the PNG format? Well, even though Photoshop can’t save images as PNGs, you can still open and edit PNG files in Photoshop. And since PNG is a lossless format, you don’t have to worry about losing any image quality when you edit and save your file.

Dale Leydon

Dale Leydon

Sysadmin turned Javascript developer. Owner of 20+ apps graveyard, and a couple of successful ones.