The PDF is transparent by default at output time. You can't see it in PlanetPress Design (because it gets displayed as a bitmap) but that's only while you're designing your template. When you actually run the job (or generate a preview), then you'll notice the PDF is transparent (assuming, of course, that your original PDF was generated with transparency... otherwise, there's nothing we can do about it!)
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Technical Product Manager
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying - Woody Allen