gchq/CyberChef · error · OperationError

Error flipping image. (${err})

Error message

Error flipping image. (${err})

What it means

Thrown when either the flip transformation or the subsequent getBuffer encoding throws inside the second try block. This is a catch-all for errors during image processing/encoding after successful load. The original error is interpolated for diagnostics. It is rarer than the load error because the image already decoded successfully.

Source

Thrown at src/core/operations/FlipImage.mjs:83

                    });
                    break;
                case "Vertical":
                    image.flip({
                        horizontal: false,
                        vertical: true,
                    });
                    break;
            }

            let imageBuffer;
            if (image.mime === "image/gif") {
                imageBuffer = await image.getBuffer(JimpMime.png);
            } else {
                imageBuffer = await image.getBuffer(image.mime);
            }
            return imageBuffer.buffer;
        } catch (err) {
            throw new OperationError(`Error flipping image. (${err})`);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Displays the flipped image using HTML for web apps
     * @param {ArrayBuffer} data
     * @returns {html}
     */
    present(data) {
        if (!data.byteLength) return "";
        const dataArray = new Uint8Array(data);

        const type = isImage(dataArray);
        if (!type) {
            throw new OperationError("Invalid file type.");
        }

        return `<img src="data:${type};base64,${toBase64(dataArray)}">`;

View on GitHub (pinned to 4290ea7539)

Solutions

1. Read the interpolated err to pinpoint whether flip() or getBuffer() failed.
2. If memory-bound, downscale or crop the image before flipping.
3. Re-save the source in a simpler format (plain PNG/JPEG) to avoid exotic color modes.

Example fix

// before: huge image causing encode failure
flip.run(hugeBuffer, ['Horizontal'])
// after: reduce size first, then flip
const smaller = await resize.run(hugeBuffer, [800, 600]);
flip.run(smaller, ['Horizontal'])

try {
  await flip.run(input, args);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.type === 'OperationError' && /Error flipping image/.test(e.message)) {
    // processing/encoding failed; read the interpolated err and downscale/retry
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Jimp's flip() failing on an edge-case image (e.g. 0-width/0-height after some prior op); getBuffer() failing to re-encode into the target mime (e.g. GIF re-encoded as PNG via JimpMime.png); an out-of-memory or internal Jimp error during buffer serialization.

Common situations: Extremely large images exhausting memory during encode; unusual color modes or bit depths Jimp cannot re-encode; a Jimp version regression in getBuffer for a specific mime.

Related errors

• Error exporting image. (${err})
• Error converting image format. (${err})
• Error opening image. (${err})
• Error normalising image. (${err})
• Invalid file type.

AI-assisted analysis of gchq/CyberChef@4290ea7539 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b386f26b6fca72ec. Report an issue: GitHub.