Transparencies

Hello,

I have just purchased Corel Draw Home and Student X6. I have also purchased some vector clipart and need to make the background transparent. At the moment, they show up in my project as the graphic but on a white or black square background. I purchased the Corel Draw program to do this but cannot find the transparency tool in the program. From reading the help files, I am now wondering whether my version of Corel is even capable of doing this or am I going to have to purchase, yet another program. Can someone please tell me. Thanks.

  • When you import vector clipart to Draw it comes in as a bunch of objects, either grouped together or not.
    When you select everything that you imported, what does it say in the Status Bar at the bottom of screen?
    If it says for example "Filename.eps" or "Group of xx Objects", then try to ungroup it. What happens?

    It could be that you have imported an EPS with the import option "Place as encapsulated PostScript"?
    In that case it can't be edited and only shows a bitmap preview of the file content.

    • To add to what Ronny wrote, and assuming these are truly vectors, the bottom object in the object docker should be that background square. Delete it - simple as that.

      There is a transparency tool, but it's not typically used for what you describe. Wink You'll get the hang of it.

      • Also bear in mind that if you export to a format such as jpg which does not support transparency, that will create a solid background even if there wasn't one in your original clipart.

        In CorelDraw a good way to know whether you have an opaque background is to temporarily put another object of a contrasting colour behind the objects you are looking at. You do not get a chequerboard to imply transparency, which you may be expecting if you have only used bitmap editors.