Now that we know the difference between Clipping and Masking, let's use Masking opacity options to our advantage. With that all in place, we can now go ahead and Clip or Mask successfully by using a Stroke. In order to do this properly though, we need to head up to Path > Stroke to Path.

Use Strokes to Clip Step 1Ī neat little trick is using the stroke of an object as a mask, or to clip. On the other hand, check out our gray mask results - it is indeed transparent. As promised, the pure white mask gave us a simple clip with no transparency.

Let's compare the two Masking operations we've just done. This particular gray will yield about 50% Opacity because it contains only about 50% lightness from the RGB spectrum. So if we did a gray Mask instead, we would end up with a slightly transparent finished product. 100% white is 100% lightness, so this means no transparency. To achieve the same result as we did with Clipping, we would have to make our Mask object completely white. That's sort of a mouthful - let me show you. Masking is very similar to Clipping, except that Masking refers to the amount of color lightness to set the clipped object's opacity. Clipping is great because you don't need to edit or modify complex objects to get them to fit in odd places, and it's always reversible just by clicking Object > Clip > Release. Once your Clip is in place, head up to Object > Clip > Set to watch the magic happen! Step 3Īnd then our clipped apples are set and ready to use in a design element, such as a circular frame. It doesn't matter what shape or color you use either. Our blue circle here will be used to clip the apples. This differs from simply cutting a path because clipping can be set and released. Let's go over the differences, benefits, and some neat tricks in this quick tip.Ĭlipping simply uses a selected object/path as a cookie cutter on a second selected object/path positioned below it. Clipping and Masking are fantastic little operations that can make your complicated objects conform to another element of your design by changing their entire shape quickly and easily.

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