Hi, the subject says it all. The question left is if this is a bug or a feature :-) Example: \starttext \definecolor[foo] [s=0,a=1,t=.5] \definepalet[bar] [foobar=foo] \blackrule[width=3cm,height=3cm,color=foo] % transparent black \blackrule[width=3cm,height=3cm,color=foobar] % pure black \stoptext Tested with ConTeXt beta from 26.01.2011. Sorry if this has been solved in the meantime. I still haven't found the time to adapt my 'specials'. Regards, Peter