I just noticed a little Pinterest glitch: it puts weird colors and shapes behind .png files with transparent backgrounds! Here are two examples:
Above is a graphic I made of a Twitter bird holding a sign. (I didn’t make the blue bird, but I added the sign.) On the left is a screenshot of the image as it appears on my Pinterest board in .png form; on the right is the original graphic. I can’t do anything to change this, because the image is actually coming from my blog (the pin is a link to the blog post that features the graphic.)
Above is one of several logos I tried to upload to Pinterest. The results were the same; an odd rectangle behind the icon. I finally turned them into .jpgs, and they were fine.
I don’t know why this is happening. I hope a web developer of some sort will give me an answer in the comments. Until we can get to the bottom of this, remember: Turn your transparent .png files into .jpgs before uploading to Pinterest!
Have a question? Have an reason for the distorted .png files? Please comment below!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Every png I uploaded to pinterest was converted to a jpg automatically – destroying the image uploaded. There is nothing there website that warns or explains what to do. My solution…. I’m dumping pinterest and will find a site that does not destroy my images.
Mad — I just checked, and you’re right; Pinterest IS converting the images to .jpg! I don’t know if that’s new, or I just didn’t notice it before, because the “converted” images are still distorted. I did an experiment and posted my results on Pinterest. You can read it here: http://pinterest.com/pin/59180182573309507/
I’m seeing the same issue when trying to pin a transparent png. I can’t believe more people don’t have this problem!
Thanks for posting this on your blog so the rest of us don’t think we are crazy when trying to troubleshoot this ongoing issue with Pinterest. I know, it’s totally nuts!!! You posted about it in Dec 2012 and I’m sure others are having the issue and hate it but are getting no results from Pinterest when they try and log an issue.
I logged this very problem with them back on March 13, 2013 and they closed out my ticket as “solved” without solving the issue, nor did they contact me back and I never saw the issue appear on their “known issue board” at https://help.pinterest.com/forums/21191723 which they told me to check out. They just closed out my ticket as “solved” to get rid of it; as if doing that makes the problem go away – How sad.
You would think at the very least they could put a white background as the “fill” when they make their conversions from .png to .jpg but what the “h” is with the crazy patchwork background fills? It’s distracting, annoying and oh so very unattractive. It just makes boards that have .png images with transparent backgrounds look junky and cluttered and makes me want to stop using the site.
Just wanted you to know you are not alone. There are more of us out here just as frustrated over the issue.
Since I wrote this article, I’ve encountered several other websites that have trouble with transparent-background .png files. I really don’t know why they cause a problem. Now I want to look into that!