Canvas background options

The canvas background is a large frame which fills the canvas. It can be filled with:

•	a solid color,

•	a texture,

•	an image, or

•	nothing (completely transparent).

You can select more than one of these options simultaneously -- and blend these effects by resetting transparency of each level.
For instance, you can drop a paper onto the canvas, then use the Image editor to change the tint, opacity or other properties of the background.

If you would like to use a background paper or an image on the background, drop it outside of the canvas area. Your selected image or texture will drop into the canvas frame. You can make further changed to it at this point.

If you would like a solid color, then simply change the canvas properties with the Image editor.

To edit your canvas, click on a blank area of the canvas or the area outside the canvas.

This will open the Toolbox, then select the Image Editor to add effects, color or tiles for texture.

Consult the Image Editor section of this user's manual for complete details on the options available. The canvas frame is simply a locked off frame, like any other on your canvas, and will behave in the same way.

Toolbox Image Selected

Editor-Image

Canvas Color
To set the canvas as a solid color, you can either:

•	Drag the Red/Green/Blue controls directly (R/G/B) on the Image Editor; or

•	Click on the Fill color chip (the little box next to the RGB values), which will open a color editor:

Editor-Color

Set the color using the various controls in the color editor. You can:

•	Click on the color gradient to find a color you like;

•	Select 100% or black via the color chips;

•	Adjust the RGB or the HSV values manually;

•	Use the eyedropper tool to pick any color on the screen;

•	Adjust the lightness/darkness of your selected shade using the slider bar.

If you intend to email this collage, keep in mind that you can set the background color of the email you send to match the color of the canvas.

Canvas Texture
To set a texture, click on or outside the canvas background, open the Image Editor, and apply one of the preset tiles. Tiles can be used in conjunction with a solid color, an image or a paper. Adjust the size and blur of the background tile by dragging appropriate controls directly below the swatches.

To have a color and a background tile active at the same time, reduce the opacity of the color to see the tile. This will allow you to retint the background tile to better match your composition.

Canvas Matte and Border
You can add the same effects to the background as you would any other frame. Click on or outside the canvas, and open the Frame Editor. Add a border of any color, size or width, or apply a matte.

Using an Image as the Canvas Background
To set an image as the background on the canvas,

•	right-click on any image on the canvas and choose 'Set as canvas background' from the pop-up menu, or

•	select an image from the Images hover or the Buckets hover and drop it in the grey area around the canvas.

This will move the selected image to the canvas layer and resize it to completely cover the canvas.

If you would like to use a decorative textured background, use the Papers Search hover to locate different options from the dotScrap Marketplace.

Positioning the Canvas Image

Occasionally, when you set an image as the canvas background, you will not like how it is positioned. This may be due to the aspect ratio of your image, which does not match the aspect ratio of your canvas, meaning that there is a different ratio between the length and the height of the image and the canvas.

For instance, if you place an image with a portrait aspect ratio (meaning it is taller than it is wide) on to a canvas with a landscape aspect ratio, meaning it is wider than it is tall, the image may be cropped strangely with important parts of the picture cut off or out completely.

To fix this, you will have to reposition the image using the frame handles. The image will only move to its maximum height or width, so you may not be able to achieve the effect you want. Transfer the image to a large frame on the canvas in this case, and resize the entire frame to crop the image more appropriately.