@moogyboy041017 Hi William, welcome to the forum! Hmm After having read your explanation I’m afraid to say I might not be understanding what the problem is exactly.
I’ve repeatedly attempted to import a PNG image with both pure black and pure white text over a transparent background and so far Pencil2D respected the alpha channel on the latest version of the software.
So i’ll have to make the obligatory question. Which version of Pencil2D are you using? You can learn about this by going to Help > About (if it doesn’t say anything then it’s really old)
If you, by any chance, are using debian repositories please do try the Appimages we have of the latest development version which you can find here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxdcdOiOmg-CcU1WOFpCOFBvVXc
It’s importnat to organize by modification date and get pencil2d-linux-2017-09-23.AppImage
On the other hand, it is true that Pencil2D Import and Export formats is somewhat limited since there’s but a few volunteers helping with the development, so right now PNG is you best bet for preserving alpha transparency.
If after getting the latest dev version you still experience this issue please let us know as this may be a Linux related bug.
On a last note, please bear in mind that Pencil2D always has a transparent background activated. The white canvas you might see is actually a color model representation, this means you can change the background to a “transparent” representation to accurately see your alpha channel whenever needed. You can change this by going to Edit > Preferences > General > Background > first checker option.
Also note that there is a system at play that I call “relative layer transparency” which makes any layer you select opaque while the rest of layers become slightly transparent to allow for easier work (as if you had semi-translucent animation paper). The only way to preview correct transparency of the canvas contents is by selecting the “camera layer”