Georeferenced image displays as blank when opened in third-party applications

Description

Georeferencing and rectifying a raster image from ArcMap displays as blank in third-party applications like Windows Photo Viewer, GIMP, and so forth.

Cause

Starting at ArcMap 10.1, when a new raster dataset is exported and the original image is 8-bit, the following message may be returned:

"Export will add NoData pixels to the output raster dataset. In order to store the NoData pixels in the output, pixel depth will be promoted. Do you want to promote the pixel depth?"

When users select Yes, the pixel depth is automatically assigned to 16-bit.

When rectifying a georeferenced image, sometimes NoData pixels are created in the corners in order to maintain the rectangular shape of the raster. When NoData pixels are added to a file-based raster with a full-bit range, these pixels are promoted to the next bit depth of 256, and results in a 16-bit output. When this output is opened in a third-party application that does not support 16-bit raster, it is shown as blank.

Solution or Workaround