Placing image with white appears transparrent in Illustrator Document

[The Inquisitor]

Hello

I am creating a cover for a coloring/puzzle book I have created.  I designed the images seperately and saved them individually in .ai and .pdf files.  As the coloring pages are for young kids the majority of the page is white with a outline drawing of, for example a monkey.

I am now in the process of designing the cover and I want to put a few things on there. I have made the background a subtle pink color.  When I place the monkey page onto the front cover the whole thing is clear except for the image.  So I have a black outline sketch of a monkey with a white interior and the rest of the page has the pink color of the cover.

What I would like to know is how can I get the whole image to become non-transparent and stay white like it is in both the .ai and .pdf versions, both of which I have tried using.

Many thanks.

[Jacob Bugge]

Inquisitor,

As you (may) know, in connexion with normal printing, white means/results in no ink.

In AI, you can see whether any part of the artwork is white or transparent by placing a background behind it (such as the subtle pink cover colour, or by showing the (subtler) Grid or the (coarser(more prominent) Transparency Grid through the View dropdown.

My first thought when I read your question was that to me it would seem more natural to have a transparent interior everywhere, both on the (white) pages to colour where there is no need for the white interior, and on the cover where the white interior will make the drawing(s) look as if coloured white rather than being left empty with the subtle pink background (or coloured paper showing through.

Apart from all that, I believe the most convenient way to use the artwork is to copy and paste the individual (vector) images rather than using separate files.

You can create and/or store them wherever convenient outside the Artboard(s) on the Workspace/canvas/scratch area on the same Layer, or on one or more separate Layers.