Why your cover art shouldn't have transparency

Modified on Tue, 25 Aug at 7:06 AM

If you see a notice saying your image has transparency, part of your artwork is see-through. Podcast apps place cover art on their own backgrounds, so those areas fill with whatever color the app uses, usually white or black. The same image can look right in one app and broken in another.

The notice doesn't stop you from saving. You can publish the image as it is. Flattening it first gives you a cover that looks the same everywhere.

How to remove transparency

The quickest fix is to save the image again as a JPG. JPG files can't store transparency, so any see-through area becomes solid.

If you want to keep a PNG, open it in your image editor, add a solid color layer behind the artwork, and export it again. Then upload the new file with Change.

How to tell if an image has transparency

  • Open it in an image editor. Transparent areas show as a gray and white checkerboard.
  • Or put it on a black background. Anything that disappears or turns black was transparent.

Logos and files exported from design tools are the usual source, because many of them save with a transparent background by default.

Important: Apple Podcasts doesn't support transparency in artwork. A cover with see-through areas can end up on a solid white or black background there.

Related articles

For help designing a cover from scratch, see How to Make a Podcast Cover.

Was this article helpful?

That’s Great!

Thank you for your feedback

Sorry! We couldn't be helpful

Thank you for your feedback

Let us know how can we improve this article!

Select at least one of the reasons
CAPTCHA verification is required.

Feedback sent

We appreciate your effort and will try to fix the article