Alpha Cahnnel automatically applied in CS3

A
Posted By
ahess
Jul 31, 2007
Views
237
Replies
4
Status
Closed
Opening Files in PS CS3 Extended seem to automatically apply the alpha channel. This happens at least if I open a EXR, a PNG. For a TGA and Tiff it seems that the Alpha is treated as s seperate Channel. Why this difference? In PS CS3 and CS2 Files are treated as they should (in my opinion), as a seperate channel and not applied. Is there a setting to change that behavior in CS3?
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Mathias_Vejerslev
Jul 31, 2007
The PNG behaviour was changed in CS2, I believe, to apply the alpha channel as transparency when opened. Apparently, this is more in line with the PNG spec, which says the alpha is a transparency channel.

In PS CS3 and CS2 Files are treated as they should

?
A
ahess
Aug 1, 2007
I mainly care about the EXR which ist the most flexible for my needs.

So again the confusion:
In PS CS3 Standard Editon the Alpha is not applied as transparency. The same in CS2.
In PS CS3 Extended the Alpha is applied as transparency. So why the difference?
I also dont understand why to refuse information a file originally contained? That makes sense for publishing but not during a production.
As far as I know there is no way back?

now I use the "old" EXR plugin from <http://www.openexr.com> which treats the alpha as i need it.
JW
Jon_Watte
Aug 8, 2007
I don’t get it. The game industry is now bigger than the movie industry, and the game industry works with transparency-as-alpha in a big way. You’d think they learned their lesson when they broke TGA support in Photoshop 7…

In CS2, I could re-create the alpha channel from a PNG by using "load selection" from transparency, and filling that in white into a new alpha layer. However, they appear to also have taken out "load selection / from transparency" in CS3. I guess it was too useful.

If they can’t fix that, I simply can’t upgrade.
JW
Jon_Watte
Aug 8, 2007
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