Losing Transparency when placing an item in illustrator

Question

I've never had this problem before. I'm saving my images in Photoshop with no background. But when I place them into Illustrator they have a white background. I've tried it as a Tiff, Png, PSD, and EPS file. I've even tried placing files that I have used on other projects and they have a background.

I have figured out that it is something to do with this AI file only, as I've opened a new AI file and placed the same images without a problem. So I'm thinking my customer checked some box somewhere and I can not find. Help Please!!

Also, when I show the Transparency grid it shows the items as a transparent background, but still cuts out what's behind it.

Answer 1

transparent TIFFs have always worked perfectly fine for me.

This works really well and used this method in many large format design files.

Answer 2

Try to Save As… and rename the file. Maybe there is a glitch in the file, since a new document seemed to work fine. The native PSD file with transparent background works best for placing transparent backgrounds in AI.

Answer 3

Instead Export it as Paths to Illustrator by choosing File->Export->Paths to Illustrator.

I hope it helps you out.