Image Not Showing Up

[DreamsDied13101]

Referencing: http://vgcollect.com/item/97804

I have added a few items on this site and this is the first that the item image came up as blank when I was done. Not empty as though an image was not added, but it just shows up as a black square.

The file is a PNG file from the Nintendo.com website and it shows up fine on my computer. I tried editing the image a second time. Maybe once the edit is approved it will show up?

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated!

[desocietas]

Heya! Can you save the file as a jpg and then resubmit? The database doesn't accept png

[ignition365]

Heya! Can you save the file as a jpg and then resubmit? The database doesn't accept png

I don't think that's necessarily true.  I've uploaded quite a few png files recently and they all worked.  They were converted to jpg after they were uploaded it seems, but I uploaded png files.

[aliensstudios]

Heya! Can you save the file as a jpg and then resubmit? The database doesn't accept png

I don't think that's necessarily true.  I've uploaded quite a few png files recently and they all worked.  They were converted to jpg after they were uploaded it seems, but I uploaded png files.

They prefer JPG files because it works better. I used to submit all PNG's but after a while I noticed a lot of the submissions were corrupted so now I simply submit in the JPG format. Makes my life easier and the admins too.

[desocietas]

That may be true, ctracy87, but sometimes PNGs come through as black images. I saw the edit to resubmit the image from the OP, and it was a black square to replace another black square. Usually that indicates that the system is only seeing a transparent image (with no pixels), I believe.

If the image is opened in a image editor and saved as a JPG, it should all be good. 

[ignition365]

That may be true, ctracy87, but sometimes PNGs come through as black images. I saw the edit to resubmit the image from the OP, and it was a black square to replace another black square. Usually that indicates that the system is only seeing a transparent image (with no pixels), I believe.

If the image is opened in a image editor and saved as a JPG, it should all be good. 

from my experience with SMF, if you save the PNG file with the save for web option, it should alleviate the issue with png files.  I used to run an smf forum that exclusively dealt with png images for their transparency.

[DreamsDied13101]

Thanks for all of the replies. Almost every image I have used on this site is PNG, but I totally understand if they freak out sometimes.

I tried it again with a JPG. I'll see if the update gets approved.

[badATchaos]

Actually PNGs are fine. You just need to be aware that transparent areas will appear black, and not white. I discovered the real issue a few weeks ago. Here's what I posted in the hidden admin section:

Yep. I finally figured out what makes images appear black on items! It comes down to the wrong file extension applied to an image. Like switching .PNG to .JPG.


Let's pretend I scan an image and the device saves it to my computer as SCAN001.jpg. Next I go into Windows Explorer and rename the image to have a different extension. So something like SCAN001.png. If I were to upload that image to VGCollect it would come out black. Many programs like web browsers or even OS thumbnails ignore the written extension.


I'm uncertain to how Matt wrote the site by my guess is that when the algorithm goes to encode an image it first determines the format of the uploaded image by it's extension. At this point it breaks because it starts reading the image data incorrectly. PNG and JPG for example use very different methods of compression. Instead of determining the format by the given extension it needs to actually read a bit of the file first to figure out what it is before proceeding.

[tripredacus]

My image editor (Fireworks) uses PNG by default but I always export my images to be JPG. It is because my editor makes "real" PNG files, not the flattened ones that other applications make. With these "real" PNG files, vector information is retained and some websites do not like them.

[badATchaos]

How is Fireworks doing these days?  I haven't used it since the Macromedia owned it. 

By the way, this is a statement from Adobe on the handling of PNG by Fireworks:

Technically speaking, Macromedia chose PNG (which stands for Portable Network Graphics) as the native file format for Fireworks because the format has both open source and proprietary characteristics. In most applications, the default file format is proprietary, meaning other applications can't open it. PNG, however, is an open source file format. Some graphic applications and browsers can open PNGs too. However, they can only read the graphical portion of a PNG's file information. Fireworks PNG files contain a second "chunk" of data that other applications can't read, which contains proprietary information about things like slicing, interactivity, and any Live Effects that may have been applied.

Basically PNGs are flat, it's just that other info is hidden in a chunk that only Fireworks can read. Quite ingenious.  Edit: Photoshop does something similar where it can embed ruler guides into JPGs.

[tripredacus]

Well I'm still using an old version. I have Fireworks MX 2004. I've only used this version and before that Fireworks 2, from college days.