Hi all

I am pretty new to inkscape - big fan so far - but a bit frustrated at what seems like a bug I can't work around.

Basically I have a PDF created by my mapserver - here
http://wildwalks.com/temp/Original.pdf
Note: the green tent icon in the middle of the map. - this is how it should look.

But if a open the orginal file in Inkscape the just save as PDF - I get this file
http://wildwalks.com/temp/Original_opened_then_saved_as_pdf.pdf
You can see that the tent now has lost its transparency and has a black boarder around it.

My question is how do I get that transparency to save in a PDF?

If I do the same thing - but save as SVG or PNG - the image looks good.
http://wildwalks.com/temp/Original_opened_then_saved_as_svg.svg
http://wildwalks.com/temp/Original_opened_then_saved_as_png.png

I have tried this on Inkscape V0.48 on both Windows XP and Ubuntu - same result (these example files from Ubuntu)
I have tried things like cut and paste the object back into the file and a bunch of random things but no luck.

Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated

Thanks
Matt

wildwalks wrote:I have tried things like cut and paste the object back into the file and a bunch of random things but no luck.

I downloaded your SVG and the first solution that occurred to me to try worked just fine, but you say you have tried it already! Here it is, maybe there's a slight difference from what you tried...
1. Open the image, if it's already open close and reopen it, this makes sure you are in the root level and not in a group...
2. Ctrl-click on the tent. the status bar should say image, masked, etc. CUT it with ctrl-X.
3. Ctrl-Alt-V to 'Paste in Place' or select the item from the edit menu. This pastes the object back at its original coordinates but on top of everything.
4. Now try to save as PDF.

The alternative method -
1. Ctrl-click on the tent. the status bar should say image, masked, etc.
2. edit menu>'make a bitmap copy'. CUT the newly created image with ctrl-X.
3. ctrl-click the tent agaian and delete it.
4. Ctrl-alt-V to paste the image back at the same coordinates. This image should look exactly the same but should no longer say 'masked'.
The drawback of this method is that the created image resolution might be very low, depending on the size of your drawing and what your preferences are set to, and this last dpends on what version of Inkscape you are using....

And the winning solutions is.....

druban wrote:The alternative method -
1. Ctrl-click on the tent. the status bar should say image, masked, etc.
2. edit menu>'make a bitmap copy'. CUT the newly created image with ctrl-X.
3. ctrl-click the tent agaian and delete it.
4. Ctrl-alt-V to paste the image back at the same coordinates. This image should look exactly the same but should no longer say 'masked'.
..

This produced the cleanest looking image in my case

Thanks guys for your great Answers.
Druban's first solutions worked but left some significant dithering around the image.
Thanks Pilospong to for your ideas. To vectorize the tent is the best solution, but in my case I was just highlighting the issue with a small section of the map, there are lots of icons on several larger maps - so the vectorization of these icons is a project for the future.

Great support guys - I think I can now get on with Inkscape frustration free.
Should this be reported as a bug? how would I do that?

Thanks again.
Matt