Why do AI prompts always add background to transparent images?

 Hey hey ​@MakePixelsWork 👋 Thanks for the great feedback. I want to dig into this a bit with you. 

Question: when you ran the edit step (changing Nike → Spike), were you using Agent on Canvas, or the "Edit with prompt" option? 

My test: I took an image (fake png from Google search), ran Figma's Remove Background tool on it (worked perfectly, same as you saw), then ran an edit prompt to change its color with no mention of the background — the background reappeared as solid white. I then ran the same edit again, but explicitly added "keep the background transparent" to the prompt — and that preserved the transparency correctly. Does that sound similar to your steps? 

Workaround for now: try adding something like "keep the background transparent" to your edit prompt after removing a background

Talk soon! – Jaycee

Well… almost. I use the Remove background button from the bottom menu and used the prompt from the same menu, but I assume this is the same as using the little Agent star next to active object.

You are running into another problem that I also had: the Agent creates a squared background pattern and assumes this is the transparent layer… but its still an image. It looks as if its an object on a classic Photoshop background pattern, but its not transparent in the sense you can see through it.

Currently the only workaround is to do everything you want on the image, but use the Remove background option as the last step. Then it truly is transparent.

Hey ​@MakePixelsWork 🙌 You rock! 

I had a few additional questions to make sure I’m clear from your end:

Is this the root issue? The edit step doesn't inherit/respect the alpha state of its own input. It's not that AI edits sometimes lose transparency at random — it's that the edit step isn't treating "this image already has alpha" as information it should carry forward. Does that match what you're seeing?

Experiencing vs. expecting? Expecting — If the source has alpha, preserve it unless told otherwise. Experiencing — having to either re-run Remove Background after every edit. Is that correct?

Anything else specific to your experience worth flagging? Thank you! — Jaycee

Almost always. Every step I take after something is made transparent, the AI either adds a new black or white background and flattens the image, or when I ask it to keep the transparency, it sometimes adds the blocked background pattern, which I assume it thinks is what transparency looks like in tools like Photoshop. 

Yes. But since its AI, its interpretation varies. Sometimes it does what you want, sometimes it doesn’t. The only way I can achieve my end goal, is to first do the image edits, and do the Remove background prompt at the very end. This is thus far the only way to get transparency.

A screen-recording of the process has been made available at:
https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cOiDj7nUkPd 

Thanks ​@MakePixelsWork 👋 I’m going to open a support ticket for this. And you are correct about my last test getting a fake “checkerboard” background. 🙃 I’ll add the details (ID and subject line) back here so you can find any replies or requests from the team. Thanks again for all the help so far! — Jaycee

Here the ID and subject line — ID 2021707 and Edit Image reintroduces background on already-transparent images. Appreciate you! — Jaycee