A process for rendering highlighter ink strokes and non-highlighter ink strokes in a non-rastering environment is described. Strokes may be grouped under a node having a predefined opacity. The strokes inherit the opacity from the node. Additionally, visuals containing highlighter strokes of the same color are grouped into collections of visuals (one collection per each highlighter color), and change the opacity of the collection (parent) visual to semi-transparent (or any other transparency value defined for the highlighter effect).