gchq/CyberChef · error · OperationError

Error loading image. (${err})

Error message

Error loading image. (${err})

What it means

Thrown by ResizeImage when Jimp.read(input) throws — i.e. the bytes passed the isImage() signature check but Jimp could not decode them. The underlying Jimp error is wrapped into the message. This indicates a file that looks like an image by magic bytes but is malformed.

Source

Thrown at src/core/operations/ResizeImage.mjs:98

            resizeAlg = args[4];

        const resizeMap = {
            "Nearest Neighbour": ResizeStrategy.NEAREST_NEIGHBOR,
            Bilinear: ResizeStrategy.BILINEAR,
            Bicubic: ResizeStrategy.BICUBIC,
            Hermite: ResizeStrategy.HERMITE,
            Bezier: ResizeStrategy.BEZIER,
        };

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

        let image;
        try {
            image = await Jimp.read(input);
        } catch (err) {
            throw new OperationError(`Error loading image. (${err})`);
        }
        try {
            if (unit === "Percent") {
                width = image.width * (width / 100);
                height = image.height * (height / 100);
            }

            if (isWorkerEnvironment())
                self.sendStatusMessage("Resizing image...");
            if (aspect) {
                image.scaleToFit({
                    w: width,
                    h: height,
                    mode: resizeMap[resizeAlg],
                });
            } else {
                image.resize({
                    w: width,

View on GitHub (pinned to 4290ea7539)

Solutions

1. Re-export/re-save the image with a standard tool (ImageMagick, Preview, Photoshop).
2. Re-download to rule out truncation.
3. For very large images, downscale externally first to avoid Jimp memory limits.
4. Inspect the wrapped err to see which decoder stage failed.

Example fix

// before
//   input: PNG header + truncated body -> Jimp throws
// after
//   input: complete, re-saved PNG that Jimp can decode

let ok; try { await Jimp.read(input); ok = true; } catch { ok = false; } if (!ok) throw new Error('Image will fail to decode');

async function decodableByJimp(buf){ try { await Jimp.read(buf); return true; } catch { return false; } }

try { await resizeImage(input); } catch (e) { if (/Error loading image/.test(e.message)) reencodeImage(input); else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Truncated or corrupt image (valid header but incomplete pixel data); a file with a spoofed image signature; an image using a sub-format Jimp's decoder rejects; an unsupported color space or compression.

Common situations: Partially downloaded images; files renamed to .png/.jpg without real conversion; images produced by non-standard encoders; memory-limit failures inside Jimp on very large images.

Related errors

• Error containing image. (${err})
• Error covering image. (${err})
• Error loading image. (${err})
• Error loading image. (${err})
• Error opening image file. (${err})

AI-assisted analysis of gchq/CyberChef@4290ea7539 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/68a041f55a440f8b. Report an issue: GitHub.