Pasting creates an empty PNG image

[ahmedelgabri]

Describe the bug
Similar to #92 when I paste an image (I have pngpaste installed) it creates an empty .png image instead.

Here is my config

{
	'https://github.com/hakonharnes/img-clip.nvim',
	event = 'VeryLazy',
	cmd = { 'PasteImage', 'ImgClipDebug', 'ImgClipConfig' },
	ft = { 'markdown', 'codecompanion' },
	keys = {
		{
			'<C-p>',
			vim.cmd.PasteImage,
			noremap = true,
			desc = 'Paste image from system clipboard',
		},
	},
	opts = {
		default = {
			file_name = '%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S',
			prompt_for_file_name = false,
		},
		filetypes = {
			markdown = {
				url_encode_path = true,
				template = '![$FILE_NAME]($FILE_PATH)',
			},
		},
	},
},

Steps to reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open a file (in my case a markdown file)
2. Copy the image to your clipboard
3. Paste the image with the keymap
4. See that the new image created is an empty image

Expected behavior
To get the correct image

Screenshots

Kapture.2025-04-15.at.12.01.00.mp4

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: macOS Sequoia 15.4
• Neovim version: 0.11
• Terminal: Ghostty (I tested in Kitty too) both with and without tmux

[hakonharnes]

Thanks for the detailed report.

This is a pngpaste issue. It seems like it pastes the thumbnail image data instead of the actual image data when the image is copied this way. As a workaround you can open the image, right click and copy. Alternatively you can drag the image into the terminal and it should paste automatically.

I'll investigate further tonight and open an issue in the pngpaste repository.

Edit: I've opened this issue.

[hakonharnes]

FYI: I'm working on replacing pngpaste with my own tool called pbctl (https://github.com/hakonharnes/pbctl). That should hopefully resolve this issue. I'll let you know when it's ready for testing.

[hakonharnes]

Hi, @ahmedelgabri!

Good news! I believe I've resolved the issue. Could you please try the following steps?

brew install hakonharnes/tap/pbctl

Set the correct branch in your Neovim config:

return {
  "HakonHarnes/img-clip.nvim",
  branch = "feat/pbctl",
  event = "VeryLazy",
  opts = {
    -- add your config here
  },
}

[ahmedelgabri]

@hakonharnes just did a quick test, and it worked flawlessly. I will keep testing it for a couple more days, but I'm very optimistic. Great stuff and thanks!

[hakonharnes]

That's great! Let me know if you run into any issues. I'll continue working on the pbctl and when it's ready for production I'll merge the feat/pbctl branch into main.

Edit:

To upgrade pbctl:

brew upgrade pbctl

If you get an error when upgrading, this should resolve it:

brew uninstall pbctl
brew untap hakonharnes/tap
brew tap hakonharnes/tap
brew install pbctl

New to brew, sorry!

[ahmedelgabri]

I didn't have a single issue with it, so I think we can safely close this issue if you want. Thank you for work on this plugin and working on the new binary too!

[hakonharnes]

Okay, great! I will close this issue when I've merged feat/pbctl into main. That'll happen once I'm satisfied with the state of pbctl and I've made a stable release.