Need a transparent background in InDesign

I am creating a window cling and need the background to be transparent. I drew a rectangle and left the stroke at 100 percent and reduced the fill to 0 percent, effectively making the inside to be transparent. It does not show on the InDesign document as transparent (like in Photoshop), nor does it show on the resulting PDF. It just remains as the regular white colored background. Am I supposed to just assume that it is indeed transparent? Why doesn't it show as transparent, only as white? Thanks!

You're comparing apples and oranges. InDesign's editing environment is intended to represent a physical page...a blank sheet of paper to which no ink has been applied. That's the white you see. You can change the paper color as well. Transparency in InDesign is indeed transparent. When, for instance, a placed Photoshop image has a transparent background, you'll see right through it to whatever is behind/below. If that's white paper, you see white.

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Question about images with transparent backgrounds in inDesign

Hi,
I've recently switched from Quark to inDesign CS5.5, and I'm trying to figure out how to do something that was easy in Quark but doesn't seem to work in iD. I'd like to colorize a greyscale image that has a transparent background. In Quark, I could import it as a TIF and then specify different colors for the image and background (which I could specify to be transparent). In iD, seems that the transparency needs to be included in Photoshop (which wasn't the case in Quark; the method worked for any greyscale TIF), and that I need to chage the color of the in original image if I want to keep that transparency. Also, from what I've read, the imported image works better as a PSD.
Is this correct? Does the transparency and color need to be specified in Photoshop for me to have a transparent image? (The image is too complex to include a clipping path, and it's being placed on a photographic background, so I can't simply change the bckground image to a solid color to make it blend in).
If this is the case, it's really disappointing--I was able to get some great effects in Quark using the other method. I hope I'm misunderstanding what to do, or there's some kind of workaround.
Thanks in advance for any help,
--Harriet

ID will only colorize non-transparent grayscales or bitmap mode images. If you don't need continuous tone, saving in Bitmap mode will render the white areas transparent when you colorize ( if the frame itself has no fill color, else that fill color will show), but that's not much good if you need a true grayscale. Changing the blending mode of a colorized grayscle to Multiply will cause white areas to be come transparent, but other areas will multiply over any background, which may not be what you want, either.

How do I blend a graphic with a transparent background in InDesign?

I have a graphic that has a transparent background created in Photoshop. When I place it in InDesign over a colored box, then print it, the graphic area comes out a few shades lighter than the color box. How do I fix this?

Assuming you have the transparency blend space set correctly, see InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Eliminating YDB (Yucky Discolored Box) Syndrome

How would you do this "star burst" tutorial but have transparent backgrounds when you're finished

I been playing around with this tutorial and have a really fun project to apply it to, but I really need a transparent background so I can use it on a couple different backgrounds. I tried just selecting the backgrounds and snipping them out, but can't figure out how stop the gradient layer at top from filling the entire background. I also tried just flattening it and cutting it out. Really neither of those solution make for anything that look slick. Is there another way to do this tutorial or way to not have a background at the end? I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS4, thanks.
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/light-burst/

csuebele wrote:
Yes, Trevor is correct about the antlines. They are only an average of the selection. There are lots of ways to create burst effects like this. You could smooth out the jagged lines with a slight radial blur. The only problem with it is that you either have to have what you want to blur perfectly centered in you document, or attempt to guess where the center is in the very small dialog box. With the above image, I use the angle gradient tool set to noise. This give a wild multcolored gradient, which I then converted to B&W, adjusted the contrast, put in screen mode, and manually masked the areas I wanted.
Jack you have some great workflow ideas. Using the gradient tool that way was new to me, but what a great tool to have in your virtual Photoshop toolbox. I had to hunt for how to set the Angle gradient to noise, but these two links did the trick for me:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/07/exploring-photoshop%E2%80%99s-angle-gradient-tool/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-77e1a.h tml
(Click on create noise gradients or scroll to the bottom of the screen).

Transparent background for an accordion in Captivate 6

How do I remove the background and the shadow from an accordion on interactions? I need a transparent background for an accordion.
P.S.: I'm not interested in purchasing the version 7, I believe that such a basic thing as this must have been provided for version 6.

It is not possible, neither in Captivate 7. You take or leave the interactions as they are.

Transparent Muse menu background in InDesign DPS

Ahoy hoy
I've been wrestling with this for hours now and no matter how close I come I can't quite fix the problem.
I've built an interactive navigation bar in Muse for a presentation designed in InDesign, using DPS. All CS6 and up to date. The nav bar sits over the top of the InDesign doc using Web Overlays.
However when I preview it, I constantly get a white background overlay as part of the Muse .html file.
I've included the following code in the Page Properties->Html for <head> box in the Muse file:
<style>
body{
background:transparent !important;
</style>
And have checked Transparent Background in Web Overlays in InDesign. So as far as I can see, I've tried everything to get the damn thing to be transparent - but it refuses.
I'm tearing my hair out here, any help would be greatly appreciated.
D

Here are some tips for achieving transparency when using Edge animations. They may work as well in your situation since you are also using HTML in the article as an overlay:
Ok sorry for the delay in responding, we were doing investigation on our end. Getting transparency isn't easy at the moment, and we'll add a future work item to try and make it more straightforward. Until then:
If your background is a solid colour, draw a rectangle with the same colour as the background and put it on top of your placed .OAM file in InDesign.
If your background is more complicated than a solid colour, after placing the .OAM file use the "Send to Back" command to ensure the placed .OAM is behind your background content. Don't worry about the impact of this on the finished .folio: we'll still treat it as an overlay and put it over top of the background when rendering.
A few other tips when working with placed .OAM files:
Do not use a poster generated from Edge because their poster PNG does not contain transparency. Even if it did, it would still need to be disabled in InDesign.
The auto play setting in Edge is ignored in DPS. Autoplay has to be checked in the overlay panel.
"Use Transparent Background" also has to be checked in the overlay panel or the background will appear white.
Neil

I place a psd file with transparent background on another layer in my InDesign document. The layer b

I placed a psd file with transparent background on another layer in my InDesign document. The layer below has a color (RGB). When the psd file is placed it changes the color on the layer below. I've tried other psd files thinking something is wrong with my file, but get the same result. I have tried for days to figure this out. Can anyone help me?

Wow, thank you! That was fast. I googled that question to death and even bought (another) book on CS5 and never saw that answer. Thank you so much. You made a very good ending to my day! I'd buy you a beer if I could!!

Exporting to PNG, need to get rid of "transparent background"

Hi all,
Just trying out Freehand as a solution for creating images
for CafePress. I get it all set for 10" X 10", export it to a PNG
file and upload it to CafePress. When I try to create a product
there, the image is no longer 10" X 10", it is only the size of the
text and CP tells me the background is transparent. I need an
opaque background to get it to work there, but I am having NO luck
figuring out how to turn off the transparency! Please help, I am
about to pull my hair out!
Thanks in advance
Sean

seanpaune wrote:
>When I try to create a product there, the image is no
longer 10" X
> 10", it is only the size of the text and CP tells me the
background is
> transparent. I need an opaque background to get it to
work there [...]
Did you draw a 10" x 10" square with white fill, no stroke,
and put it
behind the lettering? Does CafePress recognize this as
transparent or
opaque?
In normal garment screen printing, if you want white ink on a
dark shirt,
you create a white spot color and apply that to any objects
that you want to
print as white. I'm not sure how CafePress handles this. For
short runs they
may be using transfers made on a color inkjet printer. If
it's white ink you
want, you should ask them what they require.
Judy Arndt

Need a graphic to have a transparent background

I have a graphic with a white background, but i need it to have a transparent background. I have erased all the white on a new layer, but when i save it as a jpeg it still has a white background. The backgound layer is locked and wont let me delete it. What do i have to do to make the white backgound go away?

Hi there,
Nathanalf is correct; you need to save as a .psd, .gif, or .png depending on the ultimate purpose for the image.
It sounds like you are having some issues with deleting a background layer. To do so, follow these steps:
1) Here I have an image with two layers: one with an original image ("background"), and one that I want to become the final transparent image. The background layer is hidden so you can see the transparent area.
2) Here I made the background layer visible. You should be able to simply drag the layer from the layers panel to the trash can at the bottom of the panel, but if not, double click on the layer in the layers panel. This will open a dialog where you can rename the layer and will unlock it.
3) Drag the unlocked layer to the trash can to delete it.
To save as a .png:
1) Go to File > Save As
2) Under format, select .PNG. In the following dialog boxes, choose Save and OK.
I hope this helps!

REALLY need some help with transparent background

This is really starting to bug me now as I have searched the forums and the web for hours and still cannot get this to work.
I am creating a simple one page site at http://freeselfhelpebooks.org/50ofTheBestPDProducts/
I want the header and footer image to have a transparent background with only the text showing, so that the text shows on the background image.
So far I have created the header image with a transparent background Modify > Canvas > Canvas Colour > Transparent all good so far. I have added some text. Then I save as file type PNG 32, however I still get the background as white as you can see above.
I have tried PNG 8 with alpha transparency, no transparency but to no avail. I have even downloaded Photoshop CS6 and have the same issues. What am I doing wrong here?

First of all, your header graphic is fine; it's a transparent PNG. Your footer is a JPEG, which does not support transparency, so you need to resave that file into a different format (like PNG32, or PNG8 w/alpha transparency).
As I was trying to suggest, if you're confused about your graphics, check them in a graphics editor or viewer, not in a web page inside a web browser. Web development is a complex beast, and a lot can go wrong.
In the HTML of your web page, there is a class called "content" being applied to tables and images. This class has a background image being applied to it, which is responsible for the white background on those elements.

Transparent Background from Photoshop Prints with Background in InDesign

I created a picture in Photoshop with a transparent background. I saved it as a PDF to hold the transparency and then placed it into an InDesign file that has a blue background. On screen it looks fine, but when I print it there is a darker blue box around the picture. Obviously I am looking for the plain blue to show through behind the picture and not the box surrounding it. How do I remove that? Thanks for the help.

Since it depends on how the equipment handles the processing of continuous tone and linework theres no single answer to that. Newer equipment seems to be getting away from the "dual-level" processing (I haven't seen this problem on output in a few years, but that doesn't mean it isn't still out there in some shops).
If the printer can handle the live transparency, that's a good sign, and you should send a PDF that is not flattened.

Need Transparent background for video created from Photoshop Imageready

I created a
a man in imageready walking across the screen with a transparent background. I exported as an .mov like I normally do and converted to a
n F4v. But when placed in ID, the video displays with a black BG. Can anyone help? thanks

to get the transparent effect, you actually code it into the
surrounding .html using "wmode=transparent" Google that and you
should fine a tutorial. Remember that when you actually put in
wmode and its value that you need to paste it in there twice (just
like all the other tags that are already there).

Adobe Illustrator Logo on Transparent Background-Need Help with Altering Logo

Hello all!
I have a logo that was provided to me in Illustrator, but I need it on a completely transparent background. When I place it on a file, it's mostly transparent, except for the white area in the "A" and two "O"s. Do you know how I can make this 100% transparent? I've attached a screenshot to show you what I'm talking about. Any advice/help you can give would be great! Thanks! (Also, I'm using CS6)

Thank you so much Kris!
Jennifer Lydon
Keenan Motor Group
215-933-1177 Ext. 2106

How do I export a keynote slide to pdf with a transparent background?

I use Keynote for creating figures for a report I'm currently writing and layouting in Adobe InDesign.
Unfortunately I have run in to a quite annoying problem.
Because of the page-layout and background graphics in my main report, I need to be able to export the figures without the white background which comes as standard. I tried to remove the background in "Master & layout" (my Keynote is in Danish, not sure if it's called the same in English), which is suggested to bring background transparency when exporting to Quicktime movies. I doesn't seem to have any effect when exporting to pdf though.
When importing the pdf's into InDesign the figures comes up with a white background instead of the wanted transparent.
My choice of pdf over png is because of the vector graphics.
Is it possible to export to pdf's with a transparent background?

One option would be to export the slides as image files and bring them in Pages in that format.
From the top menu bar:
Share > Export > Images

Is it possible to get transparent background when exporting to PDF?

When exporting a document to PDF, Pages turns the background white instead of keeping it transparent. I need it to be transparent. Can anyone tell me what to do to fix this?
When I print a document I use stationary that is in my printer. When I want to send the document by email I need to combine my text with my stationary (on the same page). In CS4 InDesign this is really easy with switching layers on/off, but I don't want to use InDesign for my wordprocessing, but Pages. In Pages I can add a background, but I can't switch it on/off. So now I use AcrobatPro 9 to combine my text document with my stationary, adding it as a watermark or background. This does not work with documents I made in Pages since Pages makes the background of a document WHITE when it exports to pdf. Instead it needs to be TRANSPARENT.
By the way: MS-Word gets it right: it keeps the background transparent when making a pdf. But I don't want to go back to Word, I just want Pages to do it right...
Any suggestions how I can make this work? Thanks!

Hi marchaarman
Pages has an odd behavior, it actually puts 2 white backgrounds in the back of its documents.
This confounds Acrobat which inserts watermarks in front of the 1st background but sandwiched under the 2nd.
MsWord does not actually make a transparent background it just makes the 1 white background, or whatever the paper color may be.
If you want your watermark, you will need to add it in Pages, possibly as a master object in a section template that you can eliminate or add as you want.
Peter

Need a transparent background in InDesign

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