I must not be going about this the right way...I'm trying to export an object shown in the attachment, 1 is a circle and the other is a rounded rectangle. When I go to export the objects I select the "selection" tab. Also, I turned off / unchecked the border properties in the the page selection box. These are just random shapes on my document that I would like to export by themselves, so 2 separate exports. They have no fill and have only stroke turned on.

**Question** Why when I export does it take the rectangular path and not the path of the curved rectangle? How can I get the circle to export without the white square/background? I would like to export the circle only. How can I get rid of the white page background? Is there a better approach to this?

Thanks for your help.

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

It might do that if the page background wasn't transparent. It should be transparent by default, but you can double-check. Open Document Properties > Page tab > Background. If you truly have a white background, and not a transparent background, you won't notice that there's a bar shaped button beside "Background:" If the background is transparent, it will be a checkerboard pattern. If there seems to be nothing there, click once to the right of "Background:". You'll see a button click, and a tiny window with color controls will show up. Drag the A slider all the way to the left, so that the value is 0. Then you'll see the previously white, bar-shaped button change to checkerboard.

If it already is a checkerboard, with the A value 0, then something else is causing this problem. If that's the case, do you happen to use a Mac?

It sounds like you did use File menu > Export Bitmap, which is the proper way to export a PNG. But if you used Save As Cairo PNG, that would also cause this problem

I'm running windows xp - Inkscape .48. See the screen shot attached. Looks like the right side is white and the left side of the background is transparent. Any ideas on how to get both transparent?

Oh gosh, it took me a few minutes to figure out what you meant. The half checkerboard/half white doesn't meant that the background is half white and half transparent. However, I'm not sure what it does mean. I can't make that appear by changing my background.

Would you please do another screenshot showing the little color control window? Just click on the half white/half checkerboard bar to show the color controls. We need to see what the A value is.

Oooohhh, ok! Nevermind about the new screenshot. It seems I gave you some misleading info. In my Doc Props dialog, the dialog is white, while yours is gray. In reality, mine does show half white and half checkerboard, but I can't discern the white part, because it's on a white background!! So a transparent background should look exactly like yours looks. And you do indeed have a transparent background. (Click to open color controls and check A value, to confirm.)

So this indicates to me that you might be using a Mac. Yes? There's a bug that only appears when using inkscape with a Mac, and happens whenever you Paste. Instead of Copy/Paste, use Duplicate.

If you're not using a Mac and pasting these objects, then perhaps you did not use Export Bitmap after all, as I first thought you were using. If you used Save As Cairo png, that will cause the white background.

If none of these things applies to your or these objects, then maybe you do have a transparent background, but you're looking at them on a white background, so that they look like they have a white background, but they don't.

I don't quite understand your very first screenshot. Where does that blue color come from. Where are the objects when you made the screenshot with the blue color?