Revealing the Dangers of Layer Masks

CATEGORIES: Design Tip of the Day, InDesign | Jeff Witchel | July 13, 2006

Layer Clipping Masks work on an entire Layer using the top object in that Layer to hide any part of an object or objects that fall outside its shape. This is a very useful feature but you must take care because it’s so easy to Mask out an object unintentionally. So when I’m ready to apply a Layer Clipping Mask, I always Zoom out – Command + Hyphen key (Control + Hyphen key on a PC) to make sure that I can see all objects in my document. Then I click the Eye icon for the Layer in question (off and on) to hide and reveal the Layer to see if any objects disappear that I don’t want to Mask. If I uncover any these forgotten objects, I drag them to another Layer in the Layers palette. Then I can safely apply the Layer Clipping Mask by clicking on the left hand button at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

Share This

Back to Top

1. Photoshop
2. Illustrator
3. Indesign
4. Dreamweaver
5. Fireworks
6. Premiere
7. Flash
8. After Effects
9. Lightroom
10. Acrobat

Featured Partner

• 
• Dragging an Object Between Documents
• TV Scanline Effect
• Trick to the Glossy Effect
• 3D Text
• Changing Type on a Path
• more tips