Gimp will not work with PNG from internet - Can not accurately change canvas or background color?

Question

I took an image and simply changed the canvass size so that I could create more space.

After increasing the canvass size with clear/alpha I exported to both .png and .jpg and set for the highest standards.

In both cases the image was distorted.

Original

Distorted

Please note I used the highest quality for exporting. I used no compression when creating the PNG.

Update

I noticed that simply trying to fill the image with white does not work correctly. It is filled with a strange Orange color.

Also "flattening the image" , not sure what this means as the image only has one layer in GIMP creates this strange Orange color background.

Answer 1

Your image has indexed colors. If you try to add white to it, you get something from the palette and there's no white. Change the image mode at first to RGB to get free hands for coloring.

If you delete the transparency, the anti-aliasing vanishes and you get a pixelated look. Anti-aliasing stays if you are in RGB mode and remove the alpha channel. The current background color is taken into use.

See the next screenshot:

The image mode is changed to RGB, a white layer is inserted as a new layer and moved to the background in the layers panel. This can be flattened if you expect a single layer image. You can also convert it (=the flattened version) to indexed mode without problems if you allow enough colors.