Setting background color/pattern of Inkscape workspace to distinguish transparency

In InkScape 0.48:

File > Document Properties > Page > General > Background

Move R, G, and B to 0. Adjust A (Alpha) to your preference (experiment to set to your liking).

Note that this approach will set the color you choose as the background for the saved/exported image.


In InkScape 0.92:

File > Document Properties > Page > General > Background > Checkerboard background

Since version 0.92 (January 2017) you can instead choose a checkered background. This won't effect the background of the saved image, but will override the background shown in InkScape.


A slight refinement to Carl's answer:

  1. Create a background layer. In it draw a large rectangle of your desired background colour.

  2. Lock the layer to avoid selecting the background rectangle object.


I've written a feature request for this on the Inkscape bug tracker. This is currently not possible, we'll see if it gets implemented in the future.

see https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1100755

EDIT Jul 2016: The feature has been added and should be included in the upcoming 0.92 release.

Tags:

Inkscape