Making an illustration with transparent background

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
November 15, 2018
3 replies
1612 views

I am trying to make a small illustration with a transparent background so I can place it into a file I have in Indesign. My problem is that when I choose 'transparent background' when creating a new document in Photoshop, it makes it so that I can't really see what I'm drawing as I try to work because of the grey grid that indicates transparency. Is there a way I can draw with a white background but later make it transparent?

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Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

It's a while since I have done much with InDesign, but can you chose to input a PSD file in layers rather than flattened, and then chose which layers to have turned on? I might be getting confused with apps like Premiere Pro where you can do that. IME Adobe apps work well using PSD files, but we need an InDesign expert like jane-e

jane-e

Community Expert

Yes, Trevor.Dennis, you can place a layered Photoshop file into InDesign and choose which layers to hide and show.

Method 1: File > Open > Select the file and long-hold Shift before clicking Open to get Options for placing, including selections layers.
Method 2: After the image is placed, select it and go to Object menu > Object Layer Options to change which layers are showing.

InDesign also fully supports Layer Comps, so you can choose those instead of individual layers if you are using them.

JJMack

Community Expert

You can edit your Photoshop preferences to render transparency different ways Perhaps are different checkerboard size a different colors or white will be better for your work-flow. You and change these as you work