Why are there grey squares on my screen?

The appearance of grey squares indicates a Colour-Card is in use. The grey squares indicate to the user that the Colour-Card is selected, instead of a regular drawing layer.

What is a Colour-Card?

A Colour-Card is a layer/node that is used to create a large area of flat colour. This is used mostly as a plain background colour as it easily replaces the black background of the Render view, but it can also be used in other areas like compositing.

A Colour-Card cannot be edited like regular drawing layers, but the colour can be changed in the Colour-Card’s Layer Properties.

How do I get rid of the grey squares?

To hide the squares, you can do any of the following:

• Deselect the Colour-Card: Selecting any other layer will deselect the Colour-Card layer, and the grey squares will disappear until you select it again.
• Lock the Colour-Card layer: When deselecting is not enough, you can lock the Colour-Card layer by using the Lock Layer button on the layer in the Timeline view. This will prevent you from selecting the Colour-Card until you unlock it again.
• Hide the Colour-Card layer: If you only need the Colour-Card for export, simply hide the layer by using the Disable Layer button in the Timeline view, and reactivate it when you need it.

Use a Visibility node: In the Node view, connect a Visibility node under the Colour-Card, and in the settings of the Visibility node, uncheck the Display in OpenGL View checkbox. This will hide the Colour-Card in the OpenGL view, but show it in the Render view.