diff --git a/doc/users/whats_new.rst b/doc/users/whats_new.rst
index b45bacdf9a9a..b87bc11ce098 100644
--- a/doc/users/whats_new.rst
+++ b/doc/users/whats_new.rst
@@ -148,6 +148,13 @@ default quality is 95; previously, the default quality was 75.  This change
 minimizes the artifacting inherent in JPEG images, particularly with images
 that have sharp changes in color as plots often do.
 
+Full control of the background color
+------------------------------------
+Wes Campaigne and Phil Elson fixed the Agg backend such that PNGs are now
+saved with the correct background color when :meth:`fig.patch.get_alpha` is
+not 1.
+
+
 .. _whats-new-1-2-2:
 
 new in matplotlib 1.2.2
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py
index d7a81b7e8f07..865a8fd0013f 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_agg.py
@@ -16,9 +16,8 @@
 
 TODO:
 
-  * allow save to file handle
-
   * integrate screen dpi w/ ppi and text
+
 """
 from __future__ import division
 import threading
@@ -438,7 +437,7 @@ def draw(self):
         """
         if __debug__: verbose.report('FigureCanvasAgg.draw', 'debug-annoying')
 
-        self.renderer = self.get_renderer()
+        self.renderer = self.get_renderer(cleared=True)
         # acquire a lock on the shared font cache
         RendererAgg.lock.acquire()
 
@@ -449,7 +448,7 @@ def draw(self):
 
 
 
-    def get_renderer(self):
+    def get_renderer(self, cleared=False):
         l, b, w, h = self.figure.bbox.bounds
         key = w, h, self.figure.dpi
         try: self._lastKey, self.renderer
@@ -459,6 +458,8 @@ def get_renderer(self):
         if need_new_renderer:
             self.renderer = RendererAgg(w, h, self.figure.dpi)
             self._lastKey = key
+        elif cleared:
+            self.renderer.clear()
         return self.renderer
 
     def tostring_rgb(self):
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_pdf.py b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_pdf.py
index 6b688cee8b10..bc1e09e34ab3 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_pdf.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/backends/backend_pdf.py
@@ -436,7 +436,7 @@ def __init__(self, filename):
 
         revision = ''
         self.infoDict = {
-            'Creator': 'matplotlib %s, http://matplotlib.sf.net' % __version__,
+            'Creator': 'matplotlib %s, http://matplotlib.org' % __version__,
             'Producer': 'matplotlib pdf backend%s' % revision,
             'CreationDate': datetime.today()
             }
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_figure/alpha_background.png b/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_figure/alpha_background.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cc3ccda25dac
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_figure/alpha_background.png differ
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_figure/alpha_background.svg b/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_figure/alpha_background.svg
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f59b35d81258
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_figure/alpha_background.svg
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
+<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN"
+  "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
+<!-- Created with matplotlib (http://matplotlib.org/) -->
+<svg height="72pt" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 144 72" width="144pt" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
+ <defs>
+  <style type="text/css">
+*{stroke-linecap:square;stroke-linejoin:round;}
+  </style>
+ </defs>
+ <g id="figure_1">
+  <g id="patch_1">
+   <path d="
+M0 72
+L144 72
+L144 0
+L0 0
+z
+" style="fill:#00ff66;opacity:0.4;"/>
+  </g>
+  <g id="patch_2">
+   <path d="
+M20 37
+L15.3647 37.7342
+L11.1832 39.8647
+L7.86475 43.1832
+L5.73415 47.3647
+L5 52
+L5.73415 56.6353
+L7.86475 60.8168
+L11.1832 64.1353
+L15.3647 66.2658
+L20 67
+L24.6353 66.2658
+L28.8168 64.1353
+L32.1353 60.8168
+L34.2658 56.6353
+L35 52
+L34.2658 47.3647
+L32.1353 43.1832
+L28.8168 39.8647
+L24.6353 37.7342
+z
+" style="fill:#ff0000;opacity:0.6;stroke:#000000;"/>
+  </g>
+ </g>
+</svg>
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_agg.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_agg.py
index 7caf5c5fc622..1be2e7fb5292 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_agg.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_agg.py
@@ -1,6 +1,50 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 import os
+import tempfile
+
+
+from numpy.testing import assert_array_almost_equal
+
+
+from matplotlib.image import imread
+from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg as FigureCanvas
+from matplotlib.figure import Figure
+from matplotlib.testing.decorators import cleanup
+
+
+@cleanup
+def test_repeated_save_with_alpha():
+    # We want an image which has a background color of bluish green, with an
+    # alpha of 0.25.
+
+    fig = Figure([1, 0.4])
+    canvas = FigureCanvas(fig)
+    fig.set_facecolor((0, 1, 0.4))
+    fig.patch.set_alpha(0.25)
+
+    # The target color is fig.patch.get_facecolor()
+
+    _, img_fname = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix='.png')
+    try:
+        fig.savefig(img_fname,
+                    facecolor=fig.get_facecolor(),
+                    edgecolor='none')
+
+        # Save the figure again to check that the
+        # colors don't bleed from the previous renderer.
+        fig.savefig(img_fname,
+                    facecolor=fig.get_facecolor(),
+                    edgecolor='none')
+
+        # Check the first pixel has the desired color & alpha
+        # (approx: 0, 1.0, 0.4, 0.25)
+        assert_array_almost_equal(tuple(imread(img_fname)[0, 0]),
+                                  (0.0, 1.0, 0.4, 0.250),
+                                  decimal=3)
+    finally:
+        os.remove(img_fname)
+
 
 def report_memory(i):
     pid = os.getpid()
@@ -64,3 +108,8 @@ def report_memory(i):
 ##     # w/o text and w/o write_png: Average memory consumed per loop: 0.02
 ##     # w/o text and w/ write_png : Average memory consumed per loop: 0.3400
 ##     # w/ text and w/ write_png  : Average memory consumed per loop: 0.32
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    import nose
+    nose.runmodule(argv=['-s', '--with-doctest'], exit=False)
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py
index f6f033feef0b..6aefb95ca62f 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_figure.py
@@ -74,6 +74,25 @@ def test_suptitle():
     fig.suptitle('title', color='g', rotation='30')
 
 
+@image_comparison(baseline_images=['alpha_background'],
+                  # only test png and svg. The PDF output appears correct,
+                  # but Ghostscript does not preserve the background color.
+                  extensions=['png', 'svg'],
+                  savefig_kwarg={'facecolor': (0, 1, 0.4), 'edgecolor': 'none'})
+def test_alpha():
+    # We want an image which has a background color and an
+    # alpha of 0.4.
+    fig = plt.figure(figsize=[2, 1])
+    fig.set_facecolor((0, 1, 0.4))
+    fig.patch.set_alpha(0.4)
+
+    import matplotlib.patches as mpatches
+    fig.patches.append(mpatches.CirclePolygon([20, 20],
+                                              radius=15,
+                                              alpha=0.6,
+                                              facecolor='red'))
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     import nose
     nose.runmodule(argv=['-s', '--with-doctest'], exit=False)
diff --git a/src/_backend_agg.cpp b/src/_backend_agg.cpp
index fa9f93ae14eb..96ddf920e3a4 100644
--- a/src/_backend_agg.cpp
+++ b/src/_backend_agg.cpp
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ RendererAgg::RendererAgg(unsigned int width, unsigned int height, double dpi,
     renderingBuffer.attach(pixBuffer, width, height, stride);
     pixFmt.attach(renderingBuffer);
     rendererBase.attach(pixFmt);
-    rendererBase.clear(agg::rgba(1, 1, 1, 0));
+    rendererBase.clear(agg::rgba(0, 0, 0, 0));
     rendererAA.attach(rendererBase);
     rendererBin.attach(rendererBase);
     hatchRenderingBuffer.attach(hatchBuffer, HATCH_SIZE, HATCH_SIZE,
@@ -1108,7 +1108,7 @@ RendererAgg::draw_image(const Py::Tuple& args)
         inv_mtx.invert();
 
         typedef agg::span_allocator<agg::rgba8> color_span_alloc_type;
-        typedef agg::image_accessor_clip<agg::pixfmt_rgba32>
+        typedef agg::image_accessor_clip<agg::pixfmt_rgba32_plain>
             image_accessor_type;
         typedef agg::span_interpolator_linear<> interpolator_type;
         typedef agg::span_image_filter_rgba_nn<image_accessor_type,
@@ -2388,7 +2388,7 @@ RendererAgg::clear(const Py::Tuple& args)
     _VERBOSE("RendererAgg::clear");
 
     args.verify_length(0);
-    rendererBase.clear(agg::rgba(1, 1, 1, 0));
+    rendererBase.clear(agg::rgba(0, 0, 0, 0));
 
     return Py::Object();
 }
diff --git a/src/_backend_agg.h b/src/_backend_agg.h
index d1d200ee9ee4..d3067726ed3f 100644
--- a/src/_backend_agg.h
+++ b/src/_backend_agg.h
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
 
 const size_t NUM_VERTICES[] = { 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1 };
 
-typedef agg::pixfmt_rgba32 pixfmt;
+typedef agg::pixfmt_rgba32_plain pixfmt;
 typedef agg::renderer_base<pixfmt> renderer_base;
 typedef agg::renderer_scanline_aa_solid<renderer_base> renderer_aa;
 typedef agg::renderer_scanline_bin_solid<renderer_base> renderer_bin;
diff --git a/src/_image.cpp b/src/_image.cpp
index 520c8a82aa4b..13377eeed3e7 100644
--- a/src/_image.cpp
+++ b/src/_image.cpp
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 #include "mplutils.h"
 
 
-typedef agg::pixfmt_rgba32 pixfmt;
+typedef agg::pixfmt_rgba32_plain pixfmt;
 typedef agg::pixfmt_rgba32_pre pixfmt_pre;
 typedef agg::renderer_base<pixfmt> renderer_base;
 typedef agg::span_interpolator_linear<> interpolator_type;