I never got conky transparency work on proper on Gnome.
I actually have fudged with it enough that I have transparency working now. If you want to try it I'll gladly share my config with you.
Last hurdle is that it still refuses to display black .png files. Any other color is a go... just not black. Like... what the...?
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Sure. Then I can tinkering with it. I don't have conky on my main computer at the moment, but I can just install it there 
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Any help you offer, especially in this thread is Golden and Welcome.
Since I do not use Gnome, I appear under-qualified for the topic.
I had trouble with Conky Transparency on Zorin OS LIte until I figured out to enable a setting in the Window Manager Tweaks... and it was as easy as that.
EDIT:
Thinking about XFCE in combination with @Tink 's comment about the X Window system made me wonder...
It's the setting to enable Compositor in XFCE that allows Transparency for conky (and other things).
Cinnamon includes that enabled by default (Marco, I think). So does KDE.
LXDE and LXDE-gtk3 both do... I think Mate does have it enabled (Compton, I think), but I'd have to look.
Just as all the Desktop Environments contain their own compositor - So Does Gnome.
Gnome uses a fork of Mutter called "Clutter".
Using Compiz on Gnome May be a simple way of solving the issue...
The fix I have found for conky transparency is this:
own_window = true,
own_window_transparent = 'true',
own_window_type = 'Conky',
own_window_argb_visual = 'true',
own_window_class = 'override',
Read carefully, as I missed how this was any different .... until today. Nearly all of the conkys I've seen have:
own_window_type = 'normal', not own_window_type = 'conky,
Also, adding own_window_class and using that for 'override', seems to be the key vs using own_window_type = 'override',
The only drawback with this config is that semi-transparency (adjusting the own_window_argb_value) has no effect.
But still, it works... and that's something!
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Awe shucks, thanks for that. Makes a girl feel welcome.
Clearly not true as your suggestion on Compiz is golden, my friend.
Am installing it today in a VM to test drive it and also use it to test all these conkys I've written.
I installed a gnome ext called "glassy Gnome" thinking it may provide what I needed, but it was a no-go.
I am going to give Compiz a go in hopes of fixing the issue of black/dark png's not displaying.
Is this a straight-forward install, as in it compliments my current setup or are there any conflicts I need to be aware of before hand?
It has been a while since I installed Compiz. It generally is straight forward... you may need to also install a ccsm manager for it.
I had to look that up real quick... simple-ccsm compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
So...
sudo apt install compiz simple-ccsm compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
Once installed, Compiz must be configured. This is done by launching CCSM and going through the settings. I do not recall offhand - but there was some detail that had to be checked on and another that has to be checked to off... I will try looking that up when I have time.
No, no. This is more than enough help. Thanks so much for this. I'll look it up. If something goes awry I'll come back.
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Thank you for this, unfortunately it does not work on my side. If you try to install Compiz, please tell us how it goes. I believe that the source of the problem it's in there.
I forgot to mention, when doing the above settings for transparency, also comment out own_window_colour
--own_window_colour
Once window color is removed, it works.
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Here is a link to another post on Conky transparency with a sample conkyrc to use. This hopefully will solve your issue... finger's crossed.
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