This InDesign tip on revealing silhouetted images with the document grid was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on November 17, 2016.
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Ever surprised when an image in your InDesign layout was silhouetted (or not) when you expected it to be the opposite? Unless you change the definition of the [Paper] swatch, you can’t tell at a glance whether some images or objects have a white fill or a transparent background. For example, take the two Japanese flags in the screenshot below. At first, they look identical.
But you can see that only one has a white fill when you put some other content underneath.
Fortunately, you can instantly spot silhouetted content by turning on the Document Grid. Choose View > Grids & Guides > Show Document Grid. Or just press Command-‘/Ctrl+’ (that’s a single quote). And voila, the secret is revealed.
Note: this trick doesn’t work if you have Overprint Preview or Preview Mode turned on.
This article was last modified on July 25, 2019
This article was first published on November 22, 2016
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