Transparent background in Notepad++?

Solution 1:

Use Notepad++ plugin TopMost and select the option 'Make my window transparent'.

My experience with this plugin has been very limited and I came to know about it when I had the exact opposite problem with my Notepad++: my Notepad++ window became unexpectedly transparent. I was able to remove the transparency by unflagging the 'Make my window transparent' option from the Plugin->TopMost menu in NotePad++.

This is the Plugin description that Notepad++ provides:

TopMost allows to set the main Notepad++ window as a topmost window so it can stay on top of other windows even when it is not active. This plugin sync with Notepad++ own stay on top functionality and allows to remember the setting between restarts as well as to show a toolbar button. Author: Franco Stellari

Solution 2:

I wrote a program to make any window transparent. It will also make the menu bar, tool bar, etc. transparent so it may not be exactly what you need.

It runs in the background and is activated by using Shift+Ctrl+2 for 20% visibility up to Shift+Ctrl+9 for 90% visibility. Shift+Ctrl+0 goes back to full visibility.

The program is written in AutoIt. You can download the source and customize it as needed. AutoIt compiles programs to .exe in such a way that no dependencies are needed, such as DLLs or .NET.

Win_Trans on GitHub.

Solution 3:

It isn't a plugin for Notepad++ but there is a simple way to get transparent applications such as Notepad++ if you have an Nvidia graphics card that supports nview.

You can set system wide or application specific transparency settings easily. Simply enable nview, then right click on the top bar on any window, select nView options, Transparent.

Here is a clear example of Notepad++ transparent

I realise this is hardware specific solution, but it is really useful and simple if do you have the right card. I know for sure it works on XPx86, Vistax64, Windows7x86 and Windows8x64 because I've used it for years on those platforms without any issues.