How do I print a logo or an illustration on a transparent background with a white underprint?

Updated on 21 October 2026

Trace the image in the Homotope workshop, choose PDF in the Export panel and tick “Finishing layers for the printer”: the PDF holds the Artwork layer and, above it, a white layer with the chosen shapes in the white spot colour, set to overprint, as many printers ask for clear vinyl or a dark substrate.

Blurry JPEG illustration: a fox sitting at dusk, banded sky, pine trees and mushrooms, some forty colours. — 1,200 × 860 px blurry JPEG and the SVG produced by the engine, Illustration preset, “Number of colours” set to 20, untouched: each colour of the drawing becomes a clean flat area: one per thread, screen or vinyl.

The same illustration traced to SVG, each area a single colour. — 1,200 × 860 px blurry JPEG and the SVG produced by the engine, Illustration preset, “Number of colours” set to 20, untouched: each colour of the drawing becomes a clean flat area: one per thread, screen or vinyl.

×6 detail: the fox’s eye and the facets of its muzzle: clean flat colours. Drag the slider to compare; hover over the image or hold your finger on it to move the magnifier.

Try it with your image Open this example in the workshop

Steps

Drop the logo or the illustration into the workshop.
In Export, choose PDF (no separations) and tick “Finishing layers for the printer”.
Choose “Under all colours”, or “Under the chosen colours” and tick the swatches of the areas that must stand out: without white underneath, a colour stays see-through on the substrate.
Download the PDF, open it in Acrobat (Output Preview, then Separations) and check the white plate before you send it.

Nothing leaves your computer: see vectorize without uploading.

What the PDF contains

Two layers: Artwork, your design, and white, listed above it. For a sticker, the same checkbox sits under “Cut contour (stickers)”: layers CutContour, white then Artwork, never any white under the cut line.
On the white layer, the same paths as the chosen colours, solid at 100%, with no gradient and no transparency, even under a translucent colour.
A white spot colour (CMYK fallback 100/0/0/0, cyan on screen), never converted to process colours.
Overprint turned on for that layer: the white does not knock out the colours below.
If needed, the same list adds Finishing (varnish, foil) or Invisible Yellow (invisible UV ink).

If the result has a painted background, “Under all colours” also puts white under that background: for a cut-out design, choose the colours and leave the background one unticked.

What your printer means

On a transparent substrate, process ink lets light through: the printer first lays white under the areas that must stay opaque. Shops call it a white underprint, a white ink layer or a spot white; in French, blanc sélectif. The usual request: a layer named white above Artwork, a vector path under the areas that must stand out, as a spot colour set to overprint, in a layered PDF with spot colours left unconverted. That is what the checkbox produces.

Spot colour name, viewing side (a decal read from inside a window), choke: ask your printer. Homotope neither mirrors nor chokes.

Production exports (DXF, EPS, PDF, separations): 2 free per month with an account, unlimited with Pro; without Pro, 1 credit each beyond those 2. A new account gets unlimited production exports for 7 days, once. The preview and the “Ready for cutting?” check are free; the conversion runs in your browser and the server only counts the export. The details: how much vectorizing costs.

The other trades, from vinyl to embroidery: the production page; for spot-colour inks, the screen printing guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is the PDF with a white underprint free?

It is a production export, like any PDF: 2 free per month with an account, then 1 credit each, unlimited with Pro; a new account gets unlimited production exports for 7 days. In the workshop, the checkbox does not change the count; through the API or an assistant, it is a server job.

Why does the white show as cyan?

That is the 100/0/0/0 CMYK fallback of the white spot colour, shown in the workshop with an account; the white plate is what prints.

Can I get it through the API or an assistant?

Yes: the white_underprint, white_spot and white_colors parameters of the API v1 PDF result, which combine with cut_contour, and the same arguments on the get_result tool of the MCP server. The job then runs on the server.

Guides and conversions

Try it with your image