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mkear
Known Participant
December 21, 2020
Question

How to convert the artboard to transparent AI v25.0.1

  • December 21, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 7953 views

I'm producing artwork that's going to be printed on coloured paper.  I dont need to have the background colour as part of my .AI file.  In fact it would be bad to have the colour in the .AI file because there is bound to be some small colour differences between my art and the paper.    So i need the colour in the artwork when the client proofs it,   but absent when I sutmit it to printing.      In the final production .AI file I need the background transparent.      SO Im googling for how to do it and all the possible answers tell me to use the Artwork Properties panel and select the colour there,   set it to transparent.   

However I'm using the latest update,    Illustrator v 25.0.1  and there's no way to select artwork colour there.     Colour is not mentioned.     Not in the properties panel,  or in the artboard options popup,  anywhere I can see.      I figured i'd have to do the artwork again on a new (transparent) artboard - but there's nothing about artboard colour on the 'new file'  options either.    Document setup leads me to a colour selection area for the artboard but the best that can do is give me a white background.   That's just as disastrous for me as a chartreuse background.    Still no way to get a transparent artboard that I can see. 

I could have a coloured layer  in the .AI file for sending out the client's proof copy, but when I delete that later for production I have a white background.   I need transparent.   
So how do you set transparent artboard in Illustrator v25.0.1?   The choices you find by asking Uncle Google might work in previous versions but dont seem to in this latest version.      What have I missed?

Cheers

Mike Kear
Windsor, NSW,  Australia 

2 replies

tromboniator
Community Expert
tromboniatorCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 21, 2020

Mike, I might be a bit confused about what you are asking here, but I'll shove my oar in anyway.

I think Myra is pointing you in the right direction.

The Artboard is merely an area. The only attribute it has is size. It doesn't print, because it has no color, so you can't assign it a color, nor make it transparent, because it has no opacity either. It only appears white because the screen has to show something, and preferably something that doesn't interfere with the creation of artwork. It doesn't print. Neither does the Transparency Grid (which is separate from the Artboard), so you can assign it whatever color you like, to show the client. If you like, before you send it to the printer you can Hide Transparency Grid, and it will appear white onscreen, but will effectively be transparent because it has no visible attributes at all. I have no idea how one would go about actually showing transparency!

 

Peter

    M
    mkearAuthor
    Known Participant
    December 21, 2020

    Thank you Tromboniator.   That's a whole different way of looking at it.        Ok.       I was kind of envisioning something like in Photoshop when you make a gif with transparency.     In Photoshop there's a clear difference between what you see when you have a white background and a transparent background.    I was expecting to see that.   And when in Illustrator I couldn't see that kind of checkerboard look I just assumed I couldn't get transparency on a PNG.       In my mind that meant when I sent this to the printer for production,  they'd be printing white ink over the top of the yellow paper. 

     

    Ok I've sent it off to the printing company and asked them for a proof and see what they send me back.      I've sent them a .png file with absolutely nothing in the background so it will show the paper colour through.     In which case I'll cheer.    But in Illustrator it looks like a white background.

     

    Thanks for putting your oar in.       For a company that's been bragging for a decade or more that they have standardised UI on all their applications they sure have a lot of differences.    I have an issue with 3 applications now - - a different issue with each one related to the application UI.

     

    Cheers,

    Mike Kear

    Windsor,  NSW,  Australia

    Myra Ferguson
    Community Expert
    Myra FergusonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 21, 2020

    I'm in 25.0.1. Go to File > Document Setup. Click on the top color box and change it to whatever color you want. Click on the bottom color box and change it to the same color. Now, go to View > Show Transparency Grid. Then your artboard and pasteboard will be the color you selected, and a black line will indicate the boundary of the artboard.

      M
      mkearAuthor
      Known Participant
      December 21, 2020

      Thank you for your response Myra.   However when you get the colour box to choose a colour there's no choice for NO colour - or transparent.       That means when i go to the last step,  hy artboard and pasteboard are white not transparent.

       

      Or have I mis understood? 

       

      Cheers

      Mike Kear

      Windsor, NSW,  Australia 

       

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