Paul Russell wrote:
> My working hypothesis is that both PDF files have a white background
> embedded in them, which is obscuring the underlay.

That IS possible, but I haven't seen it happen much.
I've seen opaque backgrounds for XObjects containing charts,
but it's unusual for a PDF producer to create an opaque background
for a complete page (although it's perfectly possible that this is
in fact what's causing your problem).

> * Is this something you guys have come across before? Does my working
> hypothesis seem like a likely cause? Is there an easy diagnostic I can
> do do prove this?

My hypothesis #1 is that the MediaBox (or CropBox) of the original
document either has an origin that is different from (x=0, y=0).
In that case using:
background.addTemplate(firstPageStationary, 0, 0);
could add the background OUTSIDE the visible area of the page.

My hypothesis #2 is that the page size of the original document
is completely different from the page size of the stationery.
This is less likely, but I've seen it happen.

> * Above all: Is there something I can do in iText to remove these
> white backgrounds before I start the underlay operation?

Can you post a PDF so that we can see which hypothesis is correct?
If it's one of my guesses, it will be easy to solve your problem.
If it's indeed the white background problem, we'll have to be more 
creative to find a solution.
-- 
This answer is provided by 1T3XT BVBA
http://www.1t3xt.com/ - http://www.1t3xt.info

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