Image Problem Checklist
Follow the checklist in order. Record evidence and change one variable at a time; random conversion, renaming, resizing, and sharpening can hide the original cause.
Preserve and identify
- Duplicate the original.
- Record source, transfer method, full filename, and byte size.
- Check signature, container, codec, dimensions, bit depth, alpha, frames, and pages.
- Compare the extension and declared media type with detected content.
Test integrity and support
- Confirm the transfer completed.
- Open with two maintained decoders.
- Distinguish unsupported variant from damaged structure.
- Check application and operating-system support.
- Review security policy for SVG or other document-like input.
Test conversion boundaries
- Confirm the source and destination route exists.
- Check compressed bytes, decoded pixels, frames, time, and likely output size.
- Use one known-good control with the same route.
- Then use the original with one alternative supported destination.
Inspect the output
| Property | Check |
|---|---|
| Geometry | Width, height, orientation, crop |
| Quality | Blur, blocks, halos, banding |
| Transparency | Light and dark backgrounds |
| Color | Managed viewer and destination |
| Structure | Frames, pages, paths, layers |
| Delivery | File size, media type, receiver support |
Symptom branches
Will not display
Check integrity, actual format, receiver support, permissions, and content security policy.
Displays incorrectly
Compare orientation, color management, alpha compositing, animation, and selected frame or page.
File is unexpectedly large
Compare dimensions, compression model, alpha, noise, bit depth, and destination policy.
Quality changed
Inspect resizing, repeated lossy saves, codec artifacts, chroma handling, and platform re-encoding.
Only upload fails
Review byte limits, accepted extensions, media declarations, signatures, and server rules.
Reproducibility worksheet
Record source checksum, detected format, dimensions, bytes, route, software version, network state, exact result, and output checksum. This prevents two visually similar files or cached responses from being treated as the same experiment.
Escalate with useful evidence
Report the exact message, stage, route, detected format, dimensions, bytes, frame count, browser/app version, control result, and whether the problem reproduces. Share a non-sensitive sample where possible.
Stop conditions
Stop retrying if the file may be malicious, multiple decoders report corruption, repair would overwrite the only copy, or the workflow requires animation, layers, metadata, or color behavior the converter does not support.