the image cannot be displayed, because it contains error

I am displaying image using below code


header("Content-type: image/jpeg");
header('Expires: ' . date('r',time() + 864000));
header("Pragma: public");
header("Cache-Control: public");
header("Content-Length: " . strlen($contents));
echo $contents;


where $contents is getting from fread functions. Some days later the images are not displaying and i am getting the below errors

“The image <Route to imagescript.php> cannot be displayed, because it contains errors”

And after a long Google search, i found the solutions, May be this might be very helpful to others who have same issues.

If you have this problem. try to delete any space character between the begin of the script and the php tag <?php.
I spent several hours before realize this. And now it works OK. This happens because any character on the file alter the png format.

40 Comments

  1. April 26, 2010 at 10:05 am

    […] the image cannot be displayed, because it contains error (scvinodkumar.wordpress.com) Comments RSS feed […]

  2. Adawo said,

    July 20, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    Some another solution is use ob_clean() function before output image content. More info: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ob-clean.php#75694

    • June 28, 2011 at 2:34 pm

      Thanks Adawo, I really do not find from where the white space was coming for my image. But ob_clean(); really did the trick. You made my day, thanks a heaps 🙂

      • abdul muin aam said,

        November 1, 2011 at 7:23 am

        ob_clean();
        great……. , it’s work… thanks

      • abbasi said,

        March 13, 2015 at 11:44 am

        yesssssss…….good……job…….done it..!

      • Pablo Trujillo said,

        October 30, 2018 at 12:38 am

        Gracias Maestro,
        Thank you Master!.

    • frenzal said,

      January 5, 2012 at 8:56 pm

      thanks! this fixed what seems to be a wordpress bug

    • orparttj said,

      August 3, 2012 at 9:24 am

      It works gr8. Thanks

    • Junior said,

      July 18, 2013 at 1:09 pm

      Thanks!!!!

    • Hamid said,

      September 28, 2014 at 11:44 am

      Thanks a lot.

    • August 11, 2015 at 7:43 am

      really thank you so much.. i am trying to display image since long time.. its worked now.. really thank you so much

  3. June 22, 2011 at 4:25 am

    Hi. I just want to ask.
    Why the space affected this error?

    • David Schwab said,

      August 11, 2011 at 6:17 am

      A computer sees any white space as a character, the same as any alphanumeric character. So outputting a white space is the same as outputting any other letter or number and it will cause the file to be damaged and unreadable.

  4. July 14, 2011 at 5:30 am

    […] You can go here to read the post. Apache, GD, ImageMagick, imagick, LINUX, php, Windows, Windows 7 […]

  5. softboxkid said,

    August 10, 2011 at 12:14 am

    thanks for the info! and thanks (Adawo) for the links

  6. David Schwab said,

    August 11, 2011 at 6:15 am

    So the ob_clean() function before writing the header() and readfile() did it for me. Adawo’s solution works and I highly recommend it!

  7. October 31, 2012 at 1:25 pm

    I am also facing the same problem, am using the wordpress latest version.
    It happens almost all the time 😀

  8. jacko said,

    November 6, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
    Spent 2hours trying to figure this **** out before coming across this info!!

    I a black line 2 with my <?php tag on line 2 which was the root of the problem!!

    Such a simple (stupid) mistake to make without even thinking about it!

    Anyway, here are my searches (to help you out with the G):

    php readfile($image) cannot be displayed, because it contains errors

    php echo file_get_contents($image) cannot be displayed, because it contains errors

    • jacko said,

      November 6, 2012 at 2:42 pm

      That should be:
      I had a BLANK line 1 with my <?php tag on line 2

      Make sure your <?php tah is the first thing on line 1

  9. nag said,

    December 6, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    It is still showing the error, the image cant be displayed because it may contain some error.

    <?php
    header('Content-type:image/jpg');
    $password = "myPassword_!";
    $messageClear = 'farmer.jpg';

    // 32 byte binary blob
    $aes256Key = hash("SHA256", $password, true);
    // generate random iv
    $iv = mcrypt_create_iv(mcrypt_get_iv_size(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC), MCRYPT_RAND);

    $crypted = fnEncrypt($messageClear, $password);

    $newClear = fnDecrypt($crypted, $password);

    ob_clean();

    echo
    "IV: ".$iv."“.
    “Encrypted: ".$crypted."“.

    “Decrypted: ".$newClear."“;

    function fnEncrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey) {
    global $iv;
    return rtrim(base64_encode(mcrypt_encrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $sSecretKey, $sValue, MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv)), “\3”);
    }

    function fnDecrypt($sValue, $sSecretKey) {
    global $iv;
    return rtrim(mcrypt_decrypt(MCRYPT_RIJNDAEL_256, $sSecretKey, base64_decode($sValue), MCRYPT_MODE_CBC, $iv), “\3”);
    }
    ?>

    Document Title

  10. Takondwa said,

    December 19, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    This helped me alot after toiling for days. thank alot

  11. Sbwire.Com said,

    January 19, 2013 at 11:13 am

    Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect
    against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on.
    Any tips?

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  16. February 10, 2013 at 1:14 pm

    Good way of seeing things – I am a bit more of a monochrome
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  17. Mike lagan said,

    March 23, 2013 at 11:51 pm

    The PHP error handler desparately needs upating save everyone being lead up ther garden path for hours on end – 5* Many thanks!!!

  18. Mann said,

    June 12, 2013 at 11:51 am

    Thanks buddy 🙂

  19. Mico said,

    August 30, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    Spent hours on that problem!
    Good thing I opened the page on Mozilla to know wtf is wrong.
    Then found the right keywords using Google, and here’s your blog giving me the solution.
    Thanks mate! :))

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  21. amit kumar said,

    January 27, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    thank you very much……
    your suggestion of space character gives the solution……..

  22. amit kumar said,

    January 27, 2014 at 2:47 pm

    thank

  23. abbasi said,

    March 13, 2015 at 11:43 am

    Yessssssssssssssss……………..done it……good job..!!

    • abbasi said,

      March 13, 2015 at 11:53 am

      ob_clean()..done the job

  24. Nikhil said,

    January 23, 2016 at 8:30 am

    Thanks man, you saved my time.

  25. eduzilla said,

    October 30, 2017 at 1:14 pm

    ya it’s working

  26. Badal said,

    January 2, 2018 at 10:10 am

    thanks boss. its working


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