I would like to be able to take two shapes with two different fills and end up with one image with the fills retained. The following picture illustrates what I am trying to accomplish. The fill for the question mark is transparent before and after the combine. Thanks in advance!

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You're looking for Path menu > Difference.

with the fills retained

not clear what you mean here.

Brynn's solution as well as path/combine (compound path) will lose one of the objects' paint (fill/stroke) attributes.

druban wrote:Brynn's solution as well as path/combine (compound path) will lose one of the objects' paint (fill/stroke) attributes.

Yes, I found this to be the case too. I have spent lots of time looking at tutorials and doing trial and error from Inkscape's menus, but it is not doing what I was hoping. I was thinking it may take more steps, and since I am NOT a graphic designer, I was hoping someone here would know how to combine the shapes, retaining the transparency of one of the shapes. Thanks for feedback thus far!

Brynn's solution as well as path/combine (compound path) will lose one of the objects' paint (fill/stroke) attributes.

I don't follow what you mean? Oh, well yes, the stroke of the question mark is lost. But you didn't mention anything about strokes in your original message - just fills.

But here's another idea, with SVG attached below.

• Place the ? over the square (or whatever).
• Duplicate.
• Select one ? and the square.
• Difference
• Group results with remaining ?