Rectangular white space surrounding any shape graphic object

[rudy]

All versions of FM allow the pasting of any shape graphic objects into layouts.  In previous versions of FM (my last version was 10 - I skipped 11 & 12), if you selected an odd shaped graphic properly so that the copied graphic included only the shape of the graphic, you could paste it into an FM layout and it would display properly against any color background.  In version 13, no matter the shape of the original graphic, it displays in FM as a rectangle with any unused space within the rectangle filled with white.

 

Does anyone know how to get around this?

[LaRetta]

Hi Rudy,

 

There is new property called Padding.  It annoyingly sets itself default on.  In Inspector, go to Appearance tab and see down under Graphics.  :-)

[rudy]

HI,

 

The problem doesn't seem to be padding as padding is set to zero.  Let me give an example of the problem: it used to be that if you pasted a green circlular object against a red background in FM the object would appear as a green circle.  Now it appears as a square with the corners beyond the green circle filled with white.  This severely limits the ability to use graphic objects in FM.

[LaRetta]

I suspect you are on Windows?  Please update your profile to reflect your OS version.  I cannot replicate your issue (Mac OSX 10.9.1).  I have not heard reports from others about this problem.  I know that in prior versions (Windows) there has always been the issue of losing transparency when pasting but it seemed to have disappeared in version 11 on Windows.

 

Maybe someone else has ideas, sorry.

[Lee Smith]

As LaRetta requested, Please update your profile to reflect your current Operating System, Platform and the FileMaker edition (Client or Advance) of Version 13. This information is sometimes the key to you receiving a response that can help. Here is a quick link to your profile MY PROFILE for your convince.

[LaRetta]

Hi Rudy,

 

I see you updated your profile, thank you.  :-)

 

I am using Maverick as well and, unlike many problems which plague Windows, I have had no problem with images on the Mac.  However, I noticed when I first began using 11 that if I copied an image from an older FM program and pasted into 12 (this was on Windows) it would lose its transparency.  This is because FM changed the way rendering was handled.  And they changed it again, IIRC,  at least a few times between 12:0v1 and 13.0v1.  

 

The "pasting of any shape graphic" could encompass many different image formats and I couldn't even begin to guess what might be your issue; hopefully someone else understands because graphics are not my strong suit.  If you are indeed pasting, I seem to recall behaviour change between 10 and 13 also involving Paste Special but it was simply too long ago now to pin down.  

 

Having said all that, have you tried using Insert > Picture?  You should get a clean image if it began transparent, it should stay that way when inserted.  This won't be the first change you'll notice now using 13 but hopefully it'll be the only negative one.  I can assure you that using graphic objects in FM has never been more elegant. 

[LaRetta]

This also might be of use to you, Rudy, seems there is a bug here http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/041cdb204b

[rudy]

I found a solution to my graphic transparency problem.  A friend told me that PNG files maintain transparency so I exported the problem graphic from Gimp as a PNG file and dragged the PNG file icon from the desktop onto my FM layout (in Layout mode) and the graphic appeared in the upper left corner of the layout.  I moved it where it needed to be and the transparency is perfect.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Agnes Riley]

I was just going to ask why you are pasting images onto your layout.

If you use icons, you might want to put them in a table as records and reference them from there so FM wouldn't have to load them individually on every layout. Just a suggestion.