Hello!

I'm having this issue when I import PNGs made in Inkscape where white areas change to grey when imported into MS Word. I have double checked that in inkscape all areas are truly white and don't have transparency. When I open the exported png in GIMP I also see that the areas are exactly white. I tested one case with just a white square on the background, and this is changed to grey. But when I have a white square on a white square, only the outer one is changed to grey, but the square on top of it not. I find this behaviour very weird, because I don't expect for this information to be there anymore in the raster image. Or is this a misunderstanding?

The behaviour  (changing white to grey) does not always happen immediately also, sometimes it shows the image correctly initially, only to change it later.

I have attached the exported png (exported test image) and a screenshot of the image in inkscape and in MS word (screentest.png). I'm using Inkscape 0.92.4 and MS office home and student 2016.

I realize this could be more of a MS word issue than Inkscape issue, though I tested other png images with white backgrounds (taken from the web or produced by R), and there everything is fine. 

Maybe someone has encountered this and has a fix for it, or maybe an explanation why this could happen. Thanks!

Zazajk

I have double checked that in inkscape all areas are truly white and don't have transparency.

The canvas background color have nothing to do with the transparency of the exported PNG file.

Zazajk

When I open the exported png in GIMP I also see that the areas are exactly white.

Well, in Gimp can test this by adding a new layer below. Set it to gray.

Or, you can add a new layer mask, and select alpha channel. When you set Gimp to show the layer mask, if it is completely white then you have no transparency set.

To ensure no transparency are set, I use to simply add a white square that covers the canvas, make it on a separate locked layer so that it doesn't interrupt with rest of the work.

Hi Grobe,

Thanks for responding. I guess I wasn't clear: I did add a white square on top of the canvas. But that white square turns grey....

Zazajk

I guess I wasn't clear: I did add a white square on top of the canvas. But that white square turns grey

That is not clear to me, the description are too vague.

If the white square turned gray (within Inkscape ?) that can be caused by the square are in fact transparent fill after all.

Can you not see the attachments? (I'm not so familiar with this forum so maybe they are blocked?) The "Screentest" shows the situation in Inkscape and in MS Word side by side.

I put a single white square on the canvas, or white squares on top of each other (see the images). All squares are exactly white without transparency in Inkscape. Then after exporting to png, the png behaves weirdly. This weird behaviour is strongest in MS Word. (but a tiny effect can be seen when opening in MS Photos). But it is not because the exporting process changes the color, because when I open the exported image in GIMP, and I measure the color, it measures exactly white everywhere (r=255. g=255, b=255).

The dropper tool in Inkscape will show you the alpha under your cursor.

Hi Areo,

I tried that, and weirdly the alpha is 0.992, not 1. But in the "fill" tab the alpha of the object is 255. The object is not part of a group. You think this may be related to my issue?

Yes absolutely. It's hard to tell without the SVG file, but if you right click where I marked with red (with your rectangles selected) you can make the fill opaque and see if it helps.

Thanks Aero, I've figured it out. Feel a bit silly now. "make fill opaque" did not do the trick, but then I saw that the opacity was set at 99.... Apparently at some point the default opacity became 99 without me realizing it. (in fact I did not know this thing existed, I thought there was the alpha and that's it.)

Thanks again!

Transparency can be set for a color, an object, a group, a layer...