Opacity changes are not applied

Symptoms

If one or more of these match what you are seeing, you are on the right page.

• •The opacity slider moves but nothing on the canvas changes
• •The element is invisible at 100% opacity
• •Only part of the element changes transparency
• •Opacity behaves differently inside a group

Causes and fixes

Ordered from most to least likely. Work down the list — each cause is paired with what to do about it.

1. 1

   A different opacity control is at zero.

   Check all three: element opacity in the Properties Panel, the per-layer opacity slider on each fill layer in the material stack, and the alpha of the color itself in the color picker.

2. 2

   You are adjusting fill layer opacity when you want the whole element.

   Fill layer opacity affects only that layer of the material stack. Element opacity affects all fills, the stroke and the shadow as a single composited unit before blending.

3. 3

   The fill layer is hidden.

   Each fill layer has its own eye icon in the material stack. A hidden layer contributes nothing regardless of its opacity value.

4. 4

   A group blend mode is isolating the composite.

   A group with any blend mode other than Pass-through composites internally first, then blends as a unit. Set the group to Pass-through if members should blend directly with the layers below.

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