Preview Backdrop
Broadcast graphics are normally composited over live video, so most designs are built on a transparent canvas. The preview backdrop lets you simulate what sits behind your graphic — a chromakey wall, a studio set, sample footage — so you can judge contrast and legibility while you work.
The backdrop is an editing aid only. It is never saved into the design and never appears in the published or exported output — your canvas stays transparent.
Choosing a backdrop
With nothing selected, open the backdrop menu in the context toolbar above the canvas. You can choose:
- Transparent — a checkerboard, so you can see exactly where your graphic is see-through. This is the default.
- Sample footage and Studio set — built-in scene backdrops that approximate a real broadcast background.
- Solid colour — including broadcast presets like Green room (chromakey green) and Chromakey blue, plus black, white, mid-gray, magenta, or any custom colour. Great for confirming a graphic keys cleanly.
- Gradient — a set of gradient presets with adjustable orientation.
- Custom image — upload your own reference frame to design against.
The backdrop is remembered per design and is shared with the Control app: pick a backdrop on either surface in the same browser and it shows on the other. A custom uploaded image is intentionally not kept after you close the tab — everything else persists.
Testing a lower-third that will sit over a football pitch? Set the backdrop to Sample footage or a Studio set and check your text stays readable — then publish knowing the backdrop was only ever an editing aid.