Pinterest tints white-background image Pins 4% black in light mode

Pinterest automatically puts a faint layer over image Pins in the home feed that have a white or near-white background (black at 4% opacity, light mode) or a black or near-black background (white at 10% opacity, dark mode). The page says it does not apply to videos, so a video Pin keeps the colors you rendered.

What the help page says

The layer is there to separate the Pin from the app background and to highlight links on the Pin. It applies to all organic and paid image Pins and ad types, but not to videos. For white or near-white backgrounds: light mode gets a #000000 layer at 4% opacity, dark mode no change. For black or near-black backgrounds: light mode no change, dark mode gets #FFFFFF at 10% opacity.

The color arithmetic

A standard alpha blend gives result = base x (1 - a) + layer x a. For pure white over a 4% black layer, each channel is 255 x 0.96 = 244.8, about #F5F5F5. For pure black under a 10% white layer, each channel is 0 x 0.90 + 255 x 0.10 = 25.5, about #1A1A1A. This is my arithmetic on the page's numbers; Pinterest does not publish the final hex.

What it means for AI product shots

A studio shot on pure white will look very slightly gray in light mode. If your brand needs exact color matching between the Pin and a product page, the tint is outside your control. A deliberate off-white or mid-tone backdrop avoids the rule being triggered, though Pinterest does not define how close to white counts as near white, so test a live Pin.

The tint is applied after upload, so do not try to compensate by brightening the source. That also darkens the product.

When a video is the better choice

Because videos are exempt, a short video Pin on a white set keeps the white you shot. Pinterest's video Pin spec accepts 9:16, 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5 and 1:1, 4 seconds to 5 minutes. If a Sume clip with a white sweep backdrop matters more than a still, ship it as a video Pin.

The same safe zone applies to image and video Pins: 270 px at the top, 65 left, 195 right, 790 at the bottom.