Panel Opacity lets you see the canvas through the editor’s panels. It is a slider in Settings, under Panels.
What it does
Drag the slider down and every panel becomes translucent, so the canvas behind them stays visible while you work near an edge. The percentage next to the slider shows the current setting, from 100% (fully solid, the default) down to 30%, in steps of 5%. The panels change when you let go of the slider.
So a translucent panel never gets in your way, each panel snaps back to fully opaque the moment you hover over it or focus something inside it, then fades back once you move away. You always get a clear, readable panel exactly when you are using it. On a phone or tablet, where there is no hover, panels stay fully opaque.
Where it applies
Panel Opacity affects every panel: the corner panels (the AI assistant and the Map), the panels that open as popovers from a button (Layers, Collaborate, and the Poll and Vote panels from the Session buttons), the Quick Style panel and the palette strip. Buttons are not panels, so the menu button and the buttons in the bottom-right corner stay fully opaque, and so do menus and dialogs.
The Explorer is the one panel that always stays fully opaque, whatever the setting. Its menus open beside it, so a translucent Explorer would fade just as you used one of them.
Resetting it
Drag the slider back to 100% to make the panels solid again. The setting is saved with your other settings. When you are signed in it follows you to your other devices; as a guest it stays with this browser.
Was this article helpful?