Medium’s Problem with Transparent Images

Images have never been something Medium has handled well. I posted about this a year ago in an article called Medium has an Image Problem.

Back then, my gripe was about how images horizontally stretch to fill the width of the screen on the Medium iOS app—but appear fine on desktop.

I’m glad to say this problem has been fixed. The image I focussed on now displays at the correct size with space on either side.

However, I do have something else to moan about. And once again it involves the app.

If you use transparent PNG images like me, you may have noticed them appearing with a white background when Dark Mode is on.

When I tap the image, it displays correctly.

Belatedly, I did receive a response to the email sent to the Medium support team. It turns out the developers were already aware of the issue and are working on a fix.

Excuse my ignorance, but isn’t it a simple case of diving into one of the CSS files and setting the image background property to transparent?

I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but I can’t imagine a problem like this taking that long to fix.

Granted, Medium has been busy implementing other changes, but I just wish the trivial issues were prioritised.

One More Thing

In recent weeks, I’ve noticed the image size options have vanished when I click on one.

What used to appear:

What now appears:

Medium’s help page has also been updated to reflect this, suggesting it’s a long-term change. It’s likely to have something to do with the site’s recent redesign, but I’ve been struggling to find any answers.

I’m disappointed they have been taken away. I was hoping Medium would provide us with more image options, not less. I wanted the ability to crop, adjust the brightness, and perhaps even annotate. Instead, all we can do now is provide alt text.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts. Do you know anything I don’t?