# Alpha trouble

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/alpha-trouble/241220>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [October 11, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/alpha-trouble/241220 "2007-10-11T04:07:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hamster888](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c67d28/32.png) [@hamster888](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/hamster888)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/alpha-trouble/241220/1 "2007-10-11T04:07:06Z")

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A new CS3 problem…(unless I’m the problem, which I’m totally willing to face…)

Here’s what I’m doing:  
1.) set the stage to a dark color (let’s say 0x111111)  
2.) make a shape of the same color (0x111111 again), place it on the stage.  
3.) lower the alpha on the fill to 60% (or 40% or 90%, amount not important…)

What should happen:  
the shape is completely invisible, regardless

What does happen:  
the shape is slightly darker than the background color.

What’s more:  
This does not happen with light colors! with light colors, the top shape is always invisible, as it should be!

What really hurts me:  
what I really want to do (and have been doing, merrily, in MX for a while.) is make that top shape filled with a gradient that is all the same color as the background color, but is 0% alpha at one end and %100 at the other. This, however, results in chunky bars of a dark color.

Thanks in advance for any insights.