I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!

How are you viewing your PNG files, if you drag them onto IE7 or FF do they still show a checkered background?

The pngs didn't have a checkered background to begin with- Many are almost over a year old. But two things recently changed- I downloaded Picassa and use that to store all my image files, and I upgraded to the most recent inkscape version. maybe its because they are in Picassa, but suddenly this checkered background appeared, and it prints. And the new version of Inkscape- well you can only set document properties by individual documents. I used to have it set, (I think) so that my documents had white backgrounds.

But now I have to go into document properties to set the background for each document. You have to go into the color wheel and fuss with it.
If you are working with semi-transparent colors- checkers - well- they sort of make a statement of their own.

 Why would they suddently appear after I'd imported them (the pngs) into Picassa? They don't go away once I re-import them back into Inkscape.

I would just like to know a way to set my own default document properties, so that the background stays plain.

Thanks.
Rita L.

-----Original Message-----
>From: pbhj <email address hidden>
>Sent: Jan 9, 2009 6:58 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #56884]: I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!
>
>Your question #56884 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
>pbhj requested for more information:
>How are you viewing your PNG files, if you drag them onto IE7 or FF do
>they still show a checkered background?
>
>--
>To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
>this email or enter your reply at the following page:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>subscriber of the question.

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Presumably Picassa 3 on Windows XP (just guessing)?

Sounds like a pretty huge picassa bug from your description (see eg: http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/showthread.php?p=592787 ), are PNG files not imported into Picassa affected? Picassa is a photo editting app designed to handle JPEGs really well its support for PNG is I believe quite limited.

Could you post some of the files, preferably at each stage. I find it hard to believe that you can import a PNG with a checkered transparency layer and then alter the document background it Inkscape to alter that imported PNG, that would be extremely strange.

Yes but when I start a new document in inkscape, a new svg file, and I go into document properties, I have to set the backfground each time to white. Its not displaying as checkered in inkscape, but the background properties are set as checkered in the RGBA column. I think that Picassa is just reading the Inkscape settings. The RGBA background is set as fffff00 and you have to reset it as ffffffff every time. Its set as grey and white checks. Try it. Open document properties and click on the background bar, and look in the RGBA section.

-----Original Message-----
>From: pbhj <email address hidden>
>Sent: Jan 10, 2009 7:15 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #56884]: I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!
>
>Your question #56884 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
>pbhj requested for more information:
>Presumably Picassa 3 on Windows XP (just guessing)?
>
>Sounds like a pretty huge picassa bug from your description (see eg:
>http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/showthread.php?p=592787 ),
>are PNG files not imported into Picassa affected? Picassa is a photo
>editting app designed to handle JPEGs really well its support for PNG is
>I believe quite limited.
>
>Could you post some of the files, preferably at each stage. I find it
>hard to believe that you can import a PNG with a checkered transparency
>layer and then alter the document background it Inkscape to alter that
>imported PNG, that would be extremely strange.
>
>--
>To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
>this email or enter your reply at the following page:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>subscriber of the question.

________________________________________
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I found the "White Opaque" tab in "Open New..." and yes, if you have pngs with checkered backgrounds, and don't have the original svg files, you can import them into inkscape and redo the background and then export it as a new png. Thanks.

Of course, now I don't know why I'm not going to get that "can't find linked image" error message- why isn't the old png a linked image in a new svg file. And I still would like to be able to set my own defaults so I always have a white background if I want.
That was one of the stranger things- Picassa could find the missing linked images! I went to print a png that Inkscape said had a missing linked image. It took Picassa a while, but it was able to print the image.

Rita L.

-----Original Message-----
>From: "RitaL." <email address hidden>
>Sent: Jan 10, 2009 9:27 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #56884]: I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!
>
>Your question #56884 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
> Status: Needs information => Open
>
>You gave more information on the question:
>Yes but when I start a new document in inkscape, a new svg file, and I
>go into document properties, I have to set the backfground each time to
>white. Its not displaying as checkered in inkscape, but the background
>properties are set as checkered in the RGBA column. I think that Picassa
>is just reading the Inkscape settings. The RGBA background is set as
>fffff00 and you have to reset it as ffffffff every time. Its set as
>grey and white checks. Try it. Open document properties and click on the
>background bar, and look in the RGBA section.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: pbhj <email address hidden>
>>Sent: Jan 10, 2009 7:15 PM
>>To: <email address hidden>
>>Subject: Re: [Question #56884]: I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!
>>
>>Your question #56884 on Inkscape changed:
>>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>>
>> Status: Open => Needs information
>>
>>pbhj requested for more information:
>>Presumably Picassa 3 on Windows XP (just guessing)?
>>
>>Sounds like a pretty huge picassa bug from your description (see eg:
>>http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/showthread.php?p=592787 ),
>>are PNG files not imported into Picassa affected? Picassa is a photo
>>editting app designed to handle JPEGs really well its support for PNG is
>>I believe quite limited.
>>
>>Could you post some of the files, preferably at each stage. I find it
>>hard to believe that you can import a PNG with a checkered transparency
>>layer and then alter the document background it Inkscape to alter that
>>imported PNG, that would be extremely strange.
>>
>>--
>>To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
>>this email or enter your reply at the following page:
>>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>>
>>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>>subscriber of the question.
>
>
>________________________________________
>PeoplePC Online
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Rita:
The checkered background is only a visual representation of a transparent background.
It means that part is transparent, not an actual background.
The good thing is you can place those images in a document and they won't have a solid background (for instance, to place a kite on a blue sky, the kite won't have a white background and will look as if it would be actually there).
If you want to get a solid background anyway, you have to get rid of the transparency channel.
Converting the PNGs to JPGs will make it. If not, you can open them in a program like GIMP and use the "flatten image" command.

Thanks. Very much!
Rita L.

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Guillermo Espertino (Gez)" <email address hidden>
>Sent: Jan 11, 2009 5:14 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #56884]: I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!
>
>Your question #56884 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
>Guillermo Espertino (Gez) proposed the following answer:
>Rita:
>The checkered background is only a visual representation of a transparent background.
>It means that part is transparent, not an actual background.
>The good thing is you can place those images in a document and they won't have a solid background (for instance, to place a kite on a blue sky, the kite won't have a white background and will look as if it would be actually there).
>If you want to get a solid background anyway, you have to get rid of the transparency channel.
>Converting the PNGs to JPGs will make it. If not, you can open them in a program like GIMP and use the "flatten image" command.
>
>--
>If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
>know that it is solved:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884/+confirm?answer_id=5
>
>If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
>following page to enter your feedback:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>subscriber of the question.

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Thanks pbhj, that solved my question.

Thanks for all your help.

I had trouble with this too. Another way to make the change to default.svg is to edit this XML file directly.

The pagecolor and pageopacity elements are the ones you want to change. So, for a white background they'd be:

  <sodipodi:namedview
     ...
     pagecolor="#ffffff"
     ...
     inkscape:pageopacity="1"
     ... />

TG

Thanks.
Rita L.

-----Original Message-----
>From: tgrignon <email address hidden>
>Sent: Mar 22, 2009 12:06 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #56884]: I want to get rid of the gray and white checkered background from ALL of my files, future and past. How do I set my default document background? it won't let me change it!!!!
>
>Your question #56884 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/56884
>
>tgrignon posted a new comment:
>I had trouble with this too. Another way to make the change to
>default.svg is to edit this XML file directly.
>
>The pagecolor and pageopacity elements are the ones you want to change.
>So, for a white background they'd be:
>
> <sodipodi:namedview
> ...
> pagecolor="#ffffff"
> ...
> inkscape:pageopacity="1"
> ... />
>
>TG
>
>--
>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>subscriber of the question.

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