Paper Color
 

Is there a way to apply a colour to the document in Omnigraffle 5.2.1? In other words, let's say I want the document to appear as if it were parchment, or solidly black, or any other color. In Illustrator, for example, I can choose what colour the "paper" will be.

Is this functionality available in Omnigraffle 5.2.1?

Yes. Select the canvas in the canvas drawer, bring up the Style inspector and use the Fill options, or the Image options if you want to use an image.

The method isn't as simple as you describe it. In fact, the process is quite wonky. You can't choose a solid fill color, then double-click on the fill icon to bring up the color selector. I had to choose a linear gradient then select the same color for the top and bottom gradients. Once I had done that, I could flip back to a solid color, which took on the color set for the top and bottom gradients. After that, I could choose the color selector icon and find myself immediately inside the color selector. Really kinda nutty!

Open a new document. Open the canvas sidebar, if not already open. Click on Canvas 1. Bring up Style: Fill inspector via Inspectors menu, or cmd-1 plus click on Fill tab if needed. Make sure checkbox for Fill is ticked. Selector beneath Fill checkbox to Solid, if not already there. Double-click uppermost color box to left of vertical slider and choose your color.

I didn't try this in 5.2.1, only in 5.2.3, so I suppose it might be somehow different there. Any reason you aren't using the current version?