Im new to inkscape, so please bear with the noob question :)

Im trying to create a border which fades to transparent. At the moment I have the opposite - the border is white, the background is transparent.

white border

I would like to reverse this, so the middle (currently transparent)is white, and the outside -(currently white) is transparent.

Im sure its super simple but I cant figure it out!


  • 1
    I can't tell anything from that tiny screenshot. Is that a traced image or something? What exactly are you trying to achieve? It's not clear. – Billy Kerr Feb 20 '18 at 15:19

First of all, you must create an image, to use as mask, that is suitable for your needs. I would suggest you to create it in Gimp or another raster editing software since they're specifically created for these purposes.

Let's assume you already have your mask image created and exported as PNG with alpha channel like below:

enter image description here

Import your image into inkscape. For example purpose, I have created two version of the same mask, inverting the transparent area to show different results. As you can see, near the two versions of the image, there are two identical shapes filled with a gradient.

enter image description here

All you have to do is:

  1. ensure the image is ordered ABOVE the shape you want to mask (using these enter image description here)
  2. drag the image mask above the shape (if you want to mask many shapes at once, group them first)
  3. select both image mask and the shape (or group)
  4. use menu OBJECT > MASK to apply the mask

enter image description here

And this is the final result:

enter image description here

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