Balsamiq Blog

Bootstrapping a Micro-ISV, Exposed

A small enhancement: Background Transparency

by Peldi Guilizzoni. October 2nd, 2008 under Mockups, Release Announcements — 5 Comments

Hey there. Just a quick post to show a new little enhancement I just added.

You can now set the transparency level of the background color for the Tree, the TextArea and most importantly the Canvas/Rectangle control.

This is especially useful for the Canvas/Rectangle control, so that you can now, for instance, create a multi-select list by just overlaying a semi-transparent green rectangle with no border over a List control (see picture above).

Small feature, small UI footprint (just a slider next to the color-picker), 15 minutes from start to finish, hopefully big impact: love it!

The new builds are all live, so get them now!

Unrelated: I’m gearing up for a big announcement on Monday, I can’t wait!

— 5 Comments

5 Responses to “A small enhancement: Background Transparency”

Kevin Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Just tried it… LOVE IT ALREADY!
Michael Matti Says:
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Whoa … didn’t see this one coming, but two uses come to mind right away. First, this provides another nice way to handle annotations, in addition to the sticky notes and curly braces: By placing a yellow rectangle at 25% opacity over a portion of a mockup, that section can be highlighted for notes or discussion.

Also, by overlaying and offsetting two or three of the rectangles, you can get a simple simulation of screen transitions or objects in motion.

Lots of creative options with this … didn’t know I needed it, but now it suddenly seems essential.
Peldi Guilizzoni Says:
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:53 am
Yes! Great Success!
Mael Says:
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 am
Nice job, as usual.
An other idea : in the markup categorie, a arrow for notes.
Peldi Guilizzoni Says:
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:55 am
Mael, arrows are coming, hopefully next week! So much to do! Must. Type. Faster!

Hi this is Peldi from Balsamiq. This blog is a mixture of product updates, company updates and posts about my experiences as a programmer-turned-entrepreneur. If you're into 37Signals and A Smart Bear, this blog is for you.