Setting background color/pattern of Inkscape workspace to distinguish transparency

Question

How can I set the appearance of the background area in Inkscape so that I can tell the difference between an image with a white background and an image with a transparent background?

Many other image view/editing programs have a checkered background for exactly this reason, but I couldn't find anything like that for Inkscape.

Answer 1

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.

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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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

I use a big square, rectangle, oval, etc (whatever covers and hides the image completely), set the color to something ugly that obviously isn't part of the image design, then lower the shape to the bottom of the drawing so every other object is above it. Anything that is transparent will show the ugly color. When I am done editing, I delete the ugly-color shape that I created. Granted, it's a work-around, but it's relatively painless and easy to do.