Creating & Working with Clipping Masks Adobe Illustrator

Overview Basics of a Clipping Mask Download & Preparations Using Text to Create a Clipping Mask Using a Shape to Create a Clipping Mask

Basics of a Clipping Mask Think about the idea of a Mask – Used to hide part of something and show other parts Same thing with the Adobe Suite. Illustrator, Photoshop & InDesign are all capable of creating masks In Illustrator it is a Clipping Mask So, a clipping mask is an object whose shape masks other artwork so that only areas that lie within the shape are visible—in effect, clipping the artwork to the shape of the mask.

Downloading & Preparation From the assets zip extract the palmtree.tif file, put it somewhere you can find it Load Adobe Illustrator and create a new document and name it “ClippingPractice”

Text and Clipping Masks In Illustrator, go to File > Place Placing an outside file adds the file to the current .AI document. This is different from File > Open which will open the file as its own entity in the Illustrator program Navigate to the palmTree.tif file and select it Make sure in the Place window to de-select Link Linking means the palm tree would NOT actually be on the page; instead there would be a “pointer” or shortcut, that specified how to find the image. Click on the artboard to place the image of the palm tree

Text and Clipping Masks Deselect everything via Select > Deselect Select the Type Tool and open the Character Panel Remember – Can click Character on the Property bar at the top

Text and Clipping Masks Type your name, pick a typeface, set to 48 point and white Note on color choice for Fill: The palm tree image is going to become the fill for the text. The color really doesn’t matter in this situation, white is just easier to see on top of the image. Position the text so it is on the palm tree image Position doesn’t matter, however as a rule of thumb with using a clipping mask with text, do not use images where you want the viewer to immediately recognize what it is a picture of Use images that add to the design but are not focal or important to the design

Text and Clipping Masks Once your name is in position over the palm trees, select BOTH the image and the text Can use the Selection Tool to marquee select (Click & Drag across to select both), or Shift + Click the text and the image to have both selected Choose Object > Clipping Mask > Make to get the following result:

Text and clipping masks Using the effects menu – Can also add to the new clipped mask For example, could add a drop shadow by going to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow When working with the Effects Options, be sure to check the Preview option under the OK and Cancel buttons as to be able to edit on the fly and see the edit results.

Text and Clipping Masks For a graphic this small, remember to crop the artboard Even if saved with transparency, the edges of the graphic will be the artboard edges Saving as a .GIF or .PNG is especially important with web design work Use the Artboard Tool and crops the graphic Once done, go to File > Export > Export As Choose the clipping mask practice folder, and by the “Save as Type”, use the drop down menu to choose .PNG

Shapes and Clipping Mask Clipping Masks can also be created using the shape tools File > Place a graphic to use as the fill in the mask Draw a large ellipse, white fill, no stroke Remember: Fill color really doesn’t matter Select both Objects Object > Clipping Mask > Make

Shapes and Clipping Mask Once the clipping mask is complete – The shape can be reselected using the Selection Tool and then a stroke can be added around the shape. Can use the Stroke panel in the panels menu on the right side to increase the weight of the stroke to make it more visible

Multiple Shape and text Mask Let’s get real fancy It’s likely you have multiple shapes you’d like to turn unto clipping mask If the were contiguous (touching) you could use the ShapeBuilder tool to convert them to a single shape, but if they are not, a different approach is needed Let’s build something with some text, an ellipse, and a rectangle Sunset pic!

Get Started Find a photo Create a new Illustrator document File->Place to bring the photo in. Make sure to uncheck the Link button Then position

Prepare text For this exercise, we’ll use text – choose a large font, type some text Text has to be converted from text object to shapes, so after you’ve resized your text, select it and choose Object->Expand Could then resize these vector letters to resize more with selection tool, or reposition slightly Select the text AGAIN, and repeat the Object- >Expand (See how the individual letters are now highlighted?)

Add other shapes I added a shape with the pen tool for the beach (remember to close) and an ellipse for the sun Background or stroke doesn’t matter All of the shapes that will be part of the same mask should be sublayers of the same layer!

SeLect all shapes Now, select All of the shapes, EXCEPT the background… may want to start with Select->Deselect Notice how the Group of text, the ellipse, and the path are all selected (in the layers panel, you can see the circles highlighted)

SeLect all shapes Then, choose Object->Compound Path- >Make If you get an error message, you probably didn’t Expand the text twice (box to letters, letters to shape) To verify operation worked, deselect everything, then click and drag youThis is hard to discern, but notice that when you drag, all elements are moving

Create the Mask Now, we can make the mask Select the compound path, and shift click background Then, choose Object->Clipping Mask- >Make This combination can now be moved around – the elements will “stick together” Other shapes/lines etc should be placed in other layers