Updated 7 September 2026
The PNG with alpha lives in Files. Photos is usually a flatten.
Peel writes a PNG. Transparent mode writes an alpha channel. Solid mode still writes PNG, just with an opaque plate under the subject. iPhone then decides where that object goes. Safari Download is unreliable. Share → Save Image lands in Photos. Recents is a mixed view of screenshots and camera-roll recodes. Files is the directory that can actually hold the bytes Peel encoded in this tab. This page is only that split. It is not how to shoot a SKU — that is product photos. It is not the white-fill control — that is white background. It is not HEIC decode; one sentence below, then a link to how to.
People peel a bottle, tap Share, pick the first friendly button, and later upload “the PNG” to a shop. The shop receives a JPEG from Photos, or a screenshot of Peel’s checkerboard. The listing looks dirty. Peel did not fail. The bucket did. Alpha does not survive a camera-roll recode. JPEG has no alpha. HEIC in Photos is not a lossless PNG archive either.
What Peel actually put on disk
After inference, the canvas holds RGBA. Transparent export keeps a = 0 behind the subject. Solid export composites a colour, often #FFFFFF, then still encodes PNG so edges stay clean. The checkerboard you judged the mask against is CSS in the preview. It is not in the file unless you screenshot the preview. Screenshot is a new JPEG of a UI. That JPEG includes the board, chrome, and a scale that is no longer the source width. Do not upload it. Download the PNG, then open that file in another app.
The generator, the Worker, and the model stay on the homepage. This article does not re-run the net. Closing the tab drops the bitmaps. The file you kept is yours. Peel does not keep a copy on a server because the photo never left the device.
Safari Download is not a Downloads folder like desktop Chrome
iOS Safari often ignores the HTML download attribute. Sometimes nothing appears. Sometimes a share sheet opens. Sometimes a file lands in Files with the stem peel-cutout.png. Do not wait for a Chrome-style Downloads list. If the sheet appears, the two buttons that matter are Save to Files and Save Image. They are not synonyms. Save to Files is a file. Save Image is the camera roll.
Files can hold PNG with alpha
Open the Files app. Look for peel-cutout.png or the stem you typed. Open it. If the backdrop is checkerboard or see-through in Preview, you still have alpha. AirDrop that file. Attach it as a document. Upload it to a portal that accepts PNG. That object is the canvas Peel wrote. If Preview shows a white rectangle and you expected holes, you either exported Solid or you are not looking at the Files object.
iCloud Drive versus On My iPhone is a location, not a recode. Either can hold PNG. A managed work profile may hide On My iPhone. Save somewhere you can open. Peel does not know MDM. Rename the file before you hand it to a shop so they do not save it as IMG_3490.jpg from Photos.
Photos is a camera roll. Camera rolls flatten alpha.
Save Image puts the square next to selfies. iOS may keep PNG. iOS may recode to HEIC or JPEG depending on Settings → Camera → Formats and how the share sheet classified the blob. You cannot see that recode on a thumbnail. You see it when a marketplace validator says “background is not white”, or when a theme composites your “transparent” file and you get a dirty plate. Photographic Styles, Enhance, and iCloud Photos “Optimise iPhone Storage” are extra recodes. None of them exist to preserve tRNS. None of them are Peel.
If you need alpha in the next app — Figma, a slide, a Shopify section that composites onto a colour block — start from Files. If the next app only wants a white plate, export Solid on the white background page, still save to Files, then upload that PNG. Do not hope Photos will keep a checkerboard.
Recents is a view, not a folder you own
Recents mixes screenshots of the Peel tab, Save Image recodes, AirDropped pictures, and the occasional real download. The first thumbnail that “looks cut out” is often the checkerboard screenshot. Tapping it is how people attach the wrong object. If you need Peel’s file, open Files and look for the stem. If you cannot find it, Share from the generator again and pick Save to Files.
HEIC is an input problem, not a download-location problem
Camera Roll HEIC is often a blob this decoder will not open. Convert to JPEG first, then peel. That sentence already lives on how to and limits. This page does not become a HEIC converter. This origin is not HEIC Local. Sibling tools do not belong in the header.
Share sheet buttons lie by being friendly
Save Image is Photos. Save to Files is Files. Copy may put a bitmap on the clipboard that another app recodes without alpha. Markup annotates and flattens. Share into WhatsApp from Photos is a photo-send — that pipe is the WhatsApp page. Share into Mail from Files is an attachment. Share into Mail from Photos is often an inline image the other client recodes again. There is no /email article on this origin: Peel does not send mail, and a mailbox is not a cutout.
The ceiling
Peel cannot patch Safari’s download attribute. Peel cannot freeze Photos from flattening alpha. Peel cannot make a screenshot of the checkerboard into a real matte. Peel cannot sit inside iCloud Photos optimisation. Success is: a file you opened in Files, with the alpha you asked for, then handed on as that file. If you still pick Recents and send a photo, you sent a photo.
Steps
- Peel on the homepage. Transparent if the next surface composites. Solid white if the next surface rejects alpha — details on white background.
- When Safari offers Share, pick Save to Files. iCloud Drive or On My iPhone. Do not pick Save Image unless you only need a preview on the roll.
- Open Files. Find the PNG. Confirm alpha or the solid plate in Preview. If the board from the site is in the pixels, you screenshotted. Delete it. Download again.
- Hand that Files object to the next app. If the next hop is a chat, read WhatsApp. If the next hop is a listing form, read marketplace.
What looks like a bug and is not
- Safari did not show a Downloads list. That is Safari. Use Files.
- The thumbnail in Photos looks fine and the listing does not. Photos displayed a recode. Files is the master.
- AirDrop arrived as JPEG on a Mac. You AirDropped from Photos. AirDrop from Files.
- Clipboard paste into Keynote lost the holes. Clipboard is a bitmap path. Place the PNG file.
- A screenshot of the generator includes the checkerboard. That pattern is CSS. It is a defect in a shop.
- iCloud “Optimise Storage” replaced a PNG with a smaller derivative. Keep the master in Files, not only in Photos.
- Work profile hid On My iPhone. Save to a location you can open.
iPad, Mac Safari, and “Open in…” are still not Photos
iPad Safari is the same download attribute problem with a larger screen. A stage-manager window does not create a Downloads folder. Files still holds the PNG. “Open in Preview” from the share sheet on a Mac can place a real file in Downloads — that path is closer to desktop Chrome and is not this page’s failure mode. Continuity Camera and Sidecar are extra hops. Each hop can recode. If the master left iPhone via AirDrop from Photos, the Mac already lost alpha.
Shortcuts that “save to Photos” are a trap you wrote yourself. A Shortcut that saves to Files with a .png name is fine. Peel does not ship Shortcuts. We will not debug a gallery of automations. The test is always the same: open the object in Files or Finder, confirm alpha or the solid plate, then hand that object on.
Why the checkerboard on a phone looks like the product
On a 390 px preview the CSS board reads as “cut out”. At 100% in Preview the same PNG may show a fringe the 320 px net left on a sleeve. That fringe is a mask limit, documented on limits, not a Files bug. The opposite error is also common: the PNG is clean and the listing is dirty because you uploaded a screenshot of the board. Zoom the file, not the tab. If you see grey squares in the pixels, you do not have Peel’s PNG.
Dark Mode on iPhone does not change PNG bytes. It changes how Preview composites alpha over a dark chrome. A cutout that looks correct on a dark Files preview can still be a white-plate listing. Judge transparent files over a known colour, or switch Peel to Solid before export if the next surface is a shop.
Name the file before anyone else does
peel-cutout.png is fine on your phone. A shop that receives five files named IMG_3488.jpg will recode the wrong one. Rename in Files to sku-colour-front.png. Do not rename in Photos — that is still the camera roll. Do not rely on the share sheet’s “Copy Name”. The stem lives in Peel’s download control on the homepage. If you typed a custom stem, that is the filename Files should show. If Files shows a UUID, you saved a screenshot or a Photos export.
AirDrop from Files to a Mac, then inspect with a tool that shows channels. If you only have Preview, use a coloured background behind the window. If the subject sits on white and you asked for holes, you are looking at a flatten. Go back to the generator and download again. Do not “fix” a flatten by raising Peel’s threshold — the mask is not the object you are holding.
We write about what this origin does. We do not copy Apple’s Files user guide. We do not promise every iOS version keeps PNG in Photos. We do not promise a shop will refuse to recode a PNG you uploaded through a “photo” field. We do not decode HEIC here. We do not batch 200 SKUs. Test the Files object in the next app before you call the cutout finished.
Also on this origin: WhatsApp flattens alpha on photo-send · listing forms recode or reject alpha · how to peel · transparent PNG · limits.