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Color Well
Drawing Order
Defaults

Background Color


A drawing may have a non-white background color and this color may be printed or used only for the display screen. The background color is like a canvas of a painting. This color is applied to the entire drawing before any graphics are drawn. The background is always the first graphic element in the Drawing Order.

The background color is drawing specific, each drawing may have a different color background. Color changes apply to the top drawing window, not to all drawings. The background color is saved in the file with the rest of the data for the drawing. Use the Defaults panel to change the background color for all new drawings.

The Color Well (shown circled) is used to select the color for the background of the drawing. Click the color well and the universal color panel is presented for making your selection. The new color is shown immediately on the drawing. The background color is not shown on the "Layout Schematic" found to the right of the color well.

When printing hard copy to paper, the paper color is the background. Normally you will not want to print a specific background color. If you do want the background printed use the check-box to select this action. If the check-box is not checked the background color is only used for the computer display screen.

When a drawing is Saved To another graphic format (e.g. TIFF), the background is not drawn. This is true even if the print background check-box is selected. If you need a background in this case, draw a full page rectangle, Fill it with the desired color, and make it first in the drawing order.

Be especially careful when using black as a background color. If you elect to print the background, all pages will be filled with black as a first drawing step. This can use up an ink cartridge quickly and is probably not the desired action. If you really want a black printed background, buy black paper.

If you plan to print the drawing on colored paper then set the background color to the color of the paper and the computer display will properly represent the visual color relationships of the drawing. In this case you still do not check the print background color check-box.