Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello!
I have problem, that few images in document turned to black. My procedure with images is:
- printscreen into png file
- crop in OOo draw
- convert in OOo draw to contour (i want to group image with lines, arrows,.. in write)
- copy and paste to OOo writer

After few hours of work I noticed, that few images are black (see attachment). I can't go back and I don't have backup. Can you help me?

I know, that here is another thread with black images, but there is no solution for me.

They were in glorious technicolor for me. Rename a copy of the file to buggyfile.zip, open with an archive manager (Winzip or similar) and extract the files from the Pictures folder. I suggest you then convert them to some other format (perhaps .tif?) and reinsert them into your document to allow you to proceed with it immediately, pending analysis and resolution of the problem with the .png format files.

Edit: The image files in the Pictures directory in the archive opened correctly using an image editor, in this case Eye of Gnome under Ubuntu 10.10, so they should be accessible. The problem may be the .png filter in OOo.

I see the same black images on 3.2.1 with Win 7.

OK, if I understeand right, this problem should not happen with tiff images?

I don't have problem with images, I have them as separated files, but I'm not happy with reinserting if it could happen again.

Thanks for reply!

Try a sample file with a tiff image and a .png image before you do any more work. Save the file, shut down computer, have a coffee and then restart computer and reopen the file to see if all survives through the save/shutdown/reopen process.

Coffee.. I hope there is time for it. I'll make some tests.

Concerning images. After unzip files and folders, there are only visible images and one png file with 8x8 white pixels.

I extracted one of your files, an icon panel of about 26.8 KB, inserted it into Writer 3.3 RC10, saved the file, shut down the computer (to make sure nothing was being buffered/remembered) and it opened perfectly after I restarted the computer (Ubuntu 10.10). I am seeing 14 pictures in the Pictures directory, of which only the first is of an 8x8 white pixels, all the rest are icon panels, toolbars, illustrations of building components etc. I suggest Tiff, but some other format may also be suitable.

Problem is, that I opened, saved, closed document many times during last week. I don't know whet it happens, because this back images are on the top of document and I worked on the bottom of document.

Something has changed in the saving mechanism. Each time you save a file, the entire file is saved, not just the latest section. As I see your file, it is not rendering the pictures correctly, yet they are stored correctly within it. Thomasjk had a similar result. Perhaps there can be an entry edited in one of the ancillary files that will display the pictures correctly, but I do not know enough about their internals to advise what this might be. The old OpenOffice solution may help, of deleting your User Profile; I suspect that will allow new files to save correctly, but doubt it will help your existing file.

All images before section 2 are black indeed no W2k, display correctly afterward. PNG is the best format for that IMHO. But why convert to contour??? The pics have been converted to backgrounds and that's rather weird. Why not just paste them and then group with the Writer elements (from the Draw toolbar in Writer)?

Gamax wrote:Coffee.. I hope there is time for it. :) I'll make some tests.

Concerning images. After unzip files and folders, there are only visible images and one png file with 8x8 white pixels. :(

If I understand correctly, the "black" images are not in the file. In that case, importing them may solve the problem, but I don't know if it would be a permanent fix. Right-click one of the images and select Group > Edit Group. Click the black image to select it, then right-click the image and select Area > Bitmaps > Import. Navigate to the image to be imported and select Open.

Bill wrote:If I understand correctly, the "black" images are not in the file. In that case, importing them may solve the problem, but I don't know if it would be a permanent fix. Right-click one of the images and select Group > Edit Group. Click the black image to select it, then right-click the image and select Area > Bitmaps > Import. Navigate to the image to be imported and select Open.

Yes, it is easier way to fix it. Thanks! I hope, it is permanent solution..

Hagar de l'Est wrote:... But why convert to contour??? The pics have been converted to backgrounds and that's rather weird. Why not just paste them and then group with the Writer elements (from the Draw toolbar in Writer)?

Why convert? Because I didn't find way how to group it. I click on the line (from Draw toolbar), then on the image with shift pressed and... nothing is selected. When I try to select with rectangle (select tool in Draw toolbar), only line is selected. So, only way that I found (on google) is convert to contour.

RoryOF wrote:... As I see your file, it is not rendering the pictures correctly, yet they are stored correctly within it...

I don't agree. Images are not in file. I mean they are not stored in Pictures folder after unpacking...

Gamax wrote:

RoryOF wrote:... As I see your file, it is not rendering the pictures correctly, yet they are stored correctly within it...

I don't agree. Images are not in file. I mean they are not stored in Pictures folder after unpacking...

I see 14 images in the Pictures folder of the expanded file. The Pictures folder is (from memory - now on another machine) about 68k.

RoryOF wrote:

Gamax wrote:

RoryOF wrote:...

I don't agree. Images are not in file. I mean they are not stored in Pictures folder after unpacking...

I see 14 images in the Pictures folder of the expanded file. The Pictures folder is (from memory - now on another machine) about 68k.

Yes, I have same size. But I'm sure, that few images are missing. 13 images are visible in document and 14 images are in picture folder after unpack. This 14th image is 8x8 px white png. Another 9 images are not in "zip file" and in document are missed too.

PS: I hope, that my english doesn't irritating you..

In fact, you can group images if they are first pasted in Draw and then just copied and pasted to Writer. This way they are converted in a Draw object in Writer!

See that funny screenshot of the file under Ubuntu 10.10 and 3.3 RC9: You can see that the bitmap background (that has disappeared) has been replaced by something else.

Hagar de l'Est wrote:See that funny screenshot of the file under Ubuntu 10.10 and 3.3 RC9:
You can see that the bitmap background (that has disappeared) has been replaced by something else.

That's what I got also under Ubuntu. Much nicer than just black, isn't it?

Sure and thanks for easier way to paste images. But I hope, that I'll never get black images again.

Note that if you want the devs to have a look, you can upload your file in a bug report: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions. It's worth it IMHO because there is clearly a bug here.