I have an image with a white "background" as the lowest layer so that I could either export it with a solid or transparent background by turning the layer on and off. When I was finished, I noticed that there is a stripe about 10 px high in the middle of the image that gets significantly darker when I turn the background off. The dark stripe is across several layers, and across several objects within the layer, cutting some objects in half. The "background" layer and the first layer exhibiting the issue are immediately above/below each other, it's not like I am uncovering something on an semi-transparent layer or something. Does anyone have any ideas?

*waves a hand*

Hey Justlikeef! How's it going?

Just a word of encouragement: When posting a question it is very helpful for us if you mention some particulars:

• Is it a Mac? PC running Windows? PC running Linux? (I'm running Ubuntu Linux 10.10 on a Dell Dimension 5150 using a Gigabyte GT430 nVidia graphics adapter with 1 gigabyte DDR3 RAM)
• What version of Inkscape is used? (I'm currently using Inkscape 0.48.1 r9760) Help > About Inkscape > Upper right corner).

Now as to your problem. It's generic enough to ask a few preliminary questions:

1. Have you saved the file, exited Inkscape, restarted it and called up the same file with the same results?
2. Have you exported the file (File > Export Bitmap) and saved it as a PNG to see if the stripe appears on the export? Have you tried exporting the document as a PDF (File > Save As A Copy) with the same results?
3. Have you opened up the side list of Layers (Layer > Layers...) and exposed one layer at a time by closing each "eye" icon to open each one individually?
4. Have you tried View > Display Mode > Outline to see if some hitherto invisible element's borders show up?
5. Is it possible to include a copy of your file for us to examine it in hopes of finding the error, removing it and reposting it for you convenience?
6. If the file is sensitive in nature and you'd prefer not sharing it, is it possible to provide a cropped printscreen of the offending area?

It seems you may have some element (rectangle, possibly) on some layer set to "darken". But a copy of your file would help immensely.

There we go. That ought to do nicely.

And welcome to the forum! This is an excellent place to have pretty much any issue untangled. Just note this isn't a "high traffic forum". So it's possible a few hours may pass before someone'll notice your post. But don't lose heart.

At least a screenshot, and better, the SVG file, would be helpful for us to see the problem

brynn wrote:At least a screenshot, and better, the SVG file, would be helpful for us to see the problem

Off topic:

"*waves a hand*" smiley if you'd like to keep

Aww, now Brynn? That's simply not fair. You've got an incredible arsenal of cute pictures! It's funny, cuz that little waving guy was pretty much what I was thinking of when I typed my text.

I would say, judging by how the OP hasn't returned, that one of our joint suggestions may well have solved the case. My favorite solver, actually, is changing the view (VIew > Display Mode > Outline). It's great at exposing naughty little bits and pieces that are hiding in a document.