# Uploading image makes it black (not darker!)
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [April 2, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115 "2015-04-02T13:49:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@StefanD](https://meta.discourse.org/u/StefanD)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/1 "2015-04-02T13:49:30Z")
I saw the bug in which the gravatars turn dark and this does not seem to be the same.
I want to upload an asset image to the asset thread. So as it says I click on reply then on upload
and I select the file I want to upload. When it’s uploaded it looks totally pitch black.
[ ](https://imgur.com/4wX4qIS)
In the above example, the first image with gray patterns is how it looks when I link it from the web and the black box under it is how it looks when I upload it from my machine.
if you want the file to try it, it’s here [http://www.ledonneindustries.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/footer\_lodyas.png](http://www.ledonneindustries.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/footer_lodyas.png)
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/2 "2015-04-02T14:38:13Z")
Looks like ImageMagick strikes again — except that I can’t reproduce this locally.
Uploading StefanD’s file on meta and try results in a solid black image; uploading it to my local Discourse does not. Since I’m not using the Docker setup, is the ImageMagick version in the docker base image outdated?
Mine is:
```
Version: ImageMagick 6.9.0-3 Q16 x86_64 2015-01-17 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2015 ImageMagick Studio LLC
Features: DPC Modules OpenMP
Delegates (built-in): bzlib freetype jng jpeg ltdl png tiff zlib
```
---
### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/3 "2015-04-02T14:39:28Z")
Yeah, I can’t reproduce it locally either…
```
Version: ImageMagick 6.8.9-8 Q16 x86_64 2014-10-23 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2014 ImageMagick Studio LLC
Features: DPC Modules
Delegates: bzlib freetype jng jpeg ltdl lzma png xml zlib
```
And inside the docker image…
```
Version: ImageMagick 6.7.7-10 2014-03-06 Q16 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2012 ImageMagick Studio LLC
Features: OpenMP
```
Time to update ❗
---
### Author:  [@anon25879736](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon25879736)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/4 "2015-04-02T15:49:18Z")
Seems like a dup of [Uploading Grayscale images causes the image to be darkened](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-grayscale-images-causes-the-image-to-be-darkened/24616). The reason that the image is going black when uploaded is that the source image is so dark to begin with. Testing to be sure:
And with a single de-grayed pixel (top-left pixel changed from RGB(53,53,53) to RGB(54,53,53)):
**Edit:** Make sure to check the full size images. The thumbnails are reduced in size enough that the color shift doesn’t have an effect on the darkening of the image.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/5 "2015-04-02T22:39:47Z")
I thought updating ImageMagick did _not_ fix the darkening problem? @sam tested it and said, it did not:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-greyscale-jpg-avatar-processing-adds-darkness/17993/22?u=codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-greyscale-jpg-avatar-processing-adds-darkness/17993/22)
---
### Author:  [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/6 "2015-04-02T22:55:37Z")
Maybe it’s depending on a bad version of libpng?
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/7 "2015-04-02T22:56:53Z")
This is a super annoying bug so if we can figure it out, that’d be good.
---
### Author:  [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/8 "2015-04-02T23:08:12Z")
FWIW, my ImageMagick dynamically links against libpng16 and I have libpng 1.6.16 installed. That version was released in late December 2014. And… the best available version in Ubuntu Trusty is 1.2.50!? 😖
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/9 "2015-04-02T23:37:21Z")
I can confirm that in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
```
apt-get install imagemagick
```
produces
```
root@discourse:/var/discourse# convert -version
Version: ImageMagick 6.7.7-10 2014-03-06 Q16 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2012 ImageMagick Studio LLC
Features: OpenMP
```
and on the same machine
```
apt-get install libpng-dev
```
.. how do you tell the version, since this is just a library, not a command, right?
```
root@discourse:/usr/lib# find . -name *libpng*
./x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng12.so.0
./x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng.so
./x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng12.so
./x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng12.a
./x86_64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig/libpng12.pc
./x86_64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig/libpng.pc
./x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng.a
```
I guess that’s 1.2?
Looks like you need to pull compile support in @zogstrip and get the latest versions of both libpng and imagemagick in the image, first..
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/10 "2015-04-03T00:04:16Z")
if you can come up with a script that compiles image magick and libpng so it _just right_ I would be happy to add to our image.
---
### Author:  [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/11 "2015-04-03T13:54:41Z")
_Sigh_, fine, guess I’ll have to set up a VM for the Docker environment… :challengeaccepted:
---
### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/12 "2015-04-03T16:56:14Z")
Actually, @sam is looking for something to put in the Dockerfile. So you want a series of commands that you can:
- boot a clean ubuntu image
- run the commands
- save that image
- THEN run the launcher script
So you can use just one level of VM 😛
---
### Author:  [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/13 "2015-04-03T16:57:51Z")
And here we are:
>
Edit: yeah, no, I’m not touching the Dockerfile. You guys can integrate that in there. For testing, I’ve hacked the launcher and had it run this script just before pups. 😄
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/14 "2015-04-03T23:51:54Z")
I did a new image and dark handling seems way better eg:
Same avatar, same user … one is old algorithm and one new.
[https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user\_avatar/meta.discourse.org/caffeine/45/17828.png](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/caffeine/45/17828.png)
[https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user\_avatar/meta.discourse.org/caffeine/46/17828.png](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/caffeine/46/17828.png)
To get latest image and update:
```plaintext
cd /var/discourse
git pull
./launcher rebuild app
./launcher enter app
rake avatars:clean
```
@zogstrip this raises a big challenge for us we kind of want to update all optimised images everywhere we host and flush cdn.
Thanks heaps @elberet
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/uploading-image-makes-it-black-not-darker/27115/15 "2015-04-04T02:00:17Z")