Color, Opacity and Z-Order

Everything in this page is accessed via the right-click context menu on a selected annotation.

Change Color

Six preset colors plus a custom picker:

Click a preset to apply immediately. For shapes with fill, the color applies to the stroke (use Properties → Fill Color for fill).

Change Opacity

Four presets:

• 100% — fully opaque.
• 75%
• 50%
• 25%

Opacity applies to both stroke and fill. For highlights, opacity is the transparency of the highlight color — lower opacity means you can read the text underneath more clearly.

Z-Order (Stacking)

Annotations on the same page are rendered in a specific order. When two annotations overlap, the one on top obscures the one beneath.

Bring to Front

Move the selected annotation to the top of the stack.

Send to Back

Move to the bottom.

There is no "Bring Forward" or "Send Backward" in Spark — only the extreme moves. If you need finer control, Send to Back first, then Bring to Front on the one you want on top, and so on.

Move to Layer

If the document has layers (Optional Content Groups), right-click → Move to Layer → [layer name] to reassign the annotation. Hiding the layer will then hide the annotation.

Layers are created in the Layers panel (side panel).

Why These Are Separate

Color and opacity are cosmetic — they don't change geometry or position. Z-order is structural — it changes the render order within the page. Moving to a layer is organisational — it changes how the annotation is grouped for visibility toggling.

Keyboard Alternatives

There are no direct keyboard shortcuts for color, opacity or z-order — use the context menu.

Undo

Every color, opacity, or z-order change is a single undo entry:

Tips