Hi,

Though I worked on the Corel Painter Essentials 4 Beta testing team, now that Beta testing is over, I've removed the program from my computer (per the agreement all Beta testers are required to follow).

What I'll say now is based on experience with many other full Painter versions and "lite Painter versions, and what I recall about Painter Essentials 4:

The Canvas can't be made transparent. All new Layers are automatically transparent. To see this, open a new white Canvas, create a new Layer, then close the Canvas' Eye icon to make the Canvas invisible. You should now see the checkerboard pattern through the new transparent Layer.

The Preserve Transparency box is available on the Layers palette in full Painter versions, starting with Painter 6 (or Painter 6.1... I don't recall now), the first version that included Layers rather than Painter 5 and earlier version Floaters.

The Preserve Transparency box is used to (as the name indicates) preserve transparency when you've painted on the new Layer with Preserve Transparency disabled, then want to only paint over, or apply Effects menu options to the previously painted area leaving the surrounding transparent areas of the Layer unpainted.

When I get the released version of Painter Essentials 4 installed, I'll be better equipped to answer these kinds of questions.

Hope this much helps.


Jin