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PNG shows a checkerboard in Premiere Pro?

If the grey-and-white checkerboard is still there when you switch Transparency Grid off, it is part of the picture: the site you saved it from drew fake transparency into the pixels. Premiere has no one-step effect for that, so cut the subject out in Photoshop, or paste the picture with Paste Imp, which removes a baked-in checkerboard when it can do it cleanly.

Paste Imp, a small orange imp holding up a picture

The manual way

  1. Check that it is fake. Open the picture in the Source monitor and switch Transparency Grid on and off in its Settings (wrench) menu. Real transparency changes between black and a grid. A baked-in checkerboard looks the same both ways. A JPG can't hold transparency at all, so a “transparent” JPG is always fake.
  2. Cut the subject out in Photoshop (Remove Background in the Properties panel), or in any background remover, and save a PNG.
  3. Or mask it in Premiere. Draw a Pen tool mask around the subject in Effect Controls › Opacity. This works for simple shapes and is slow on soft or detailed edges.
  4. Import the PNG (Ctrl+I) and drag it to a free track above your clip.

With Paste Imp

  1. Copy the picture in your browser.
  2. Press Ctrl+V in Premiere. It lands at the playhead on the first empty track.

On 34 real stock previews, 21 were cut out cleanly and 13 were left exactly as they were. None came out half cut. When the picture is left as it was, use the manual way above.

Paste Imp also converts WebM, AV1, SVG and other formats Premiere can't open, and never overwrites clips on your timeline. Needs Windows 10 or 11 and Premiere Pro 26. More about Paste Imp.

Paste Imp $7.99 a month

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