Clipping mask VS. Selection for restricting area?

What is the advantage of making a clipping mask vs. selection for painting a selected area and making sure not to go out of it?
Thanks.

Painting on a layer clipping masked to another layer ascertains that the transparency of the underlying layer is maintained.
For example if a region/pixel of that layer has 50% transparency painting on a clipped layer will result in that region/pixel having the new color but the same transparency.
If on the other hand one were to paint on a separate layer with a Selection of the first layer’s transparency
• multiple Brush strokes in the 50% transparency region could push it much higher
• a single 100% Stroke (or Fill) would cause the resulting pixels to be a mixture of background, first layer and second layer (see attachment, middle clipped, right masked)

Similar Messages

Plea from technical artist: CS5 clipping mask content selection as a preference...

I just have to weigh in on this.
I've been trying to adjust to CS5, from CS3, since November. It's now March.
My job involves taking apart and editing complex art created by other people... who have all different ways of working. The inability to see what a clipping mask contains when I click on it, AND the inability to edit the contents unless I first locate the perimeter of the mask and/or switch tools, has me working "blind". It's become a real battle to figure out how the previous artist set things up.
I've found workaround methods, but they're just that. I seem to be doing a lot more clicking, double clicking and tool switching, all of which are that much harder on hands that do this for 10 hours a day.
I need to be able to click on an element and know if it is part of a mask, what other additional elements that mask contains, whether the perimeter of the mask is aligned correctly, etc.
PLEASE make it a preference setting to handle masks and mask content selection the old way. When I'm building new art, I'll be happy to work the CS5 way. When I'm trying to figure out what someone else has done... please don't make me work harder than I already do...
Thanks.

Larry (et al),
[Please be assured...I've invested HOURS trying to get this clipping mask to work before requesting help on this forum.]
The exact same image as per my prior post appears when the file is saved:
Illustrator --> Save As --> PDF
Illustrator --> Export --> JPEG (with and without Artboards)
Illustrator --> Export --> PNG(with and without Artboards)EXCEPT: One PNG trial with "Transparency" selected (turned ON) did not have a white background but did have the unwanted 90-degree corners.
Illustrator --> Save for Web --> PNG
Illustrator --> Save for Web --> JPEG
And a few other trials whose details I omitted to record.
After ~dozen trials...with many permutations & combinations of Adobe Illustrator's parameters...all I can generate is the image in my prior post--with the unwanted 90-degree corners.
Let me fully acknowledge, no doubt I'm doing something wrong...yet I just can't figure out what.
@Larry: Would you please clarify the reference to the Avery labels? Regrets, I looked at the site you provided...yet don't understand how it relates to clipping masks.
Here's hoping someone can throw a life-line.
Many thanks to everyone,
Plane Wryter

Clipping mask vs. selection?

I want to restrict my painting to only part of an image.
1. How is doing this with a clipping mask different from just making a selection and painting within a selection?
2. How can I make a clipping mask to do this?
Thanks.

Actually with anti-aliased or softened edges of a Selection multiple brush-strokes can produce a different result than if the Layer is clipping masked (or has a Layer Mask).
Good point! The effect would be the same as painting once each on multiple, stacked clipping masks? I think it would. My point was that selection = clipping mask = layer mask (something which interests me greatly). I wonder if there are any other ways in which they're not the same.

Is it possible to make clipping masks only selectable within their objects?

I sometimes work with files which have multiple objects which contain enormous clipping masks. This means whenever I go to drag-select multiple objects on a board it will always select multiple clipping masks, and essentially render this mode of selection useless.
Is there any way to ensure that clipping masks are only ever selected within the bounds of their containing object?
Thanks,
Felix

Sure.
So I'll have a page full of pushpoints, with clipping masks applied to each to provide a photographic backdrop:
But then if I try and select the adjacent pushpoint elements, it will also select the clipping masks, despite the fact that it doesn't actually touch its containing object.
This has lead to quite a bit of inconvenience in many circumstances. Any idea, apart from locking the layers? I need the clipping masks to also be selected when their container layer is selected, but not the rest.
Thanks in advance!

Seamless repeating pattern - using embedded images with clipping masks

Hi forum,
We struggle a bit creating a seemless repeating pattern that includes embedded images with clipping masks applied.
Our pattern is a 550x550mm black square with various embedded inserted on top. All of these images have Clipping Masks applied to hide unwanted areas.
These images are placed so they create a seamless repeating pattern and this includes areas that overlap the square.
Once we create a swatch from this pattern the repeatable area becomes too big as it includes the unwanted areas hidden by the clipping masks.
Because the repeatable area is now too big it's actually not repeatable.
We tried various things in order to solve this issue. Pathfinder/crop to delete the unwanted areas in the images etc.
None of them worked good enough.
We though of just livetracing the images, but due to the complexity this is not an option.
Do we really have to do our "cutting" in Photoshop or do you know any fancy tricks for issues like this?
Appreaciate your insight
Kenneth

Kenneth,
You may try the destructive deed, with the Clipping Mask selected:
1) In the Transparency palette/panel dropdown list select anything but Normal (Multiply is fine),
2) Object>Flatten Transparency, just keep the defaults including 100% Vector,
3) Shudder.
This should reduce the size to the Bounding Box of the Clipping Path.

Illustrator clipping mask creating white fill?!!!

Hi all,
So basically i have designed the top of a paper plane and have completed the top design which i now want to clip into the template using the clipping mask tool. I have used it exactly how it is supposed to'
1. firstly getting my shape that i want to use to clip exactly how i want it
2. then getting my image which i want to place under my first shape to use the clipping mask with
3. align it in place and bring my "shape" to the front and image to the back
then using the selection tool i select all objects then click
objects> clipping mask> make
and for some reason it clips it but the image that i wastring to clip just becomes a white fill...
i have no idea how to fix this and its driving me crazy,, i cant find a soloution no matter how long i try to fix it or research it..
i have included some screenshots below

Hi thanks so much for that! yes i did as you asked and it seems to work if i complete a rectangle clipping mask! but as soon as i copy it over and try it with my original shape, it doesnt work.... i think there is something wrong with what i have created as i showed in my last screen shot, even when i try to create a fill for my shape that i have made and am trying to use for the clipping mask it doesnt fill,, even though t says it is "filled" pink however when i completed the rectangle it had a fill of white so i knew it was ontop and that it would work,,, which isnt really happening with my shape, as it doesnt have a fill even when it says it does

Alignment of Clipping masks broken

I have attached an example of the problem I've come across when aligning grouped clipping masks. The 2 sets are exactly the same, only the grouping order seems to be different, yet the bottom objects DO NOT ALIGN CORRECTLY. Why doesn't it and why hasn't this been addressed yet?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!? So they can charge another $2 000 to fix it in CS5?!?!?!!? It took me DAYS of troubleshooting and HOURS lost on workarounds before I got as far as having an understanding of why this sometimes happens and not other times. One of my printjobs ended up printed WRONG with alignment mistakes because of this, at first i thought it was my sloppyness and couldn't understand how i'd overlook such a basic alignment mistake, now i know it's the software I depend on for a living that let me down once more. Having state of the art software DOESN'T HELP IF I LOSE HOURS OF MY LIFE TO BUGGY BEHAVIOUR. I'm getting more and more frustrated with Adobe with every passing day, I wish Macromedia was still around.... :-(

Well, who told you that this particular bug will be fix on CS5. Maybe is scheduled to be fix on CS7, or CS8. How much money you have left?
My predictions are that CS5 will be free of any new bugs! (just like I predicted that CS3 was a winning version, Dang it!).
I am sure Adobe is reading this forum with great concern that you are loosing money trying to make this lousy version to work for you. I am sure your client will understand excuses. Isn't funny that your are working for the program instead the program working for you?
Adobe does not care, nor has provided a single update for the last 4 years. What assurance do you have that CS5 will be better or worse? If we stop buying its lousy versions, maybe, just maybe Adobe will change.... not!

Clipping mask on placed bitmaps

I'm new to Illustrator for Mac.
Question:
Why is placed bitmaps automatically placed with a clipping mask? In CS3 for windows no such thing is applied. It's annoying because it's an extra step to delete the clipping mask before doing a trace.

Are you "Placing" or "Pasting" the bitmap file? I get a mask when pasting but not placing (I agree, it is annoying).

Pasting images without clipping masks.

I often capture portions of my screen and paste them into Illustrator but they almost always get an unwanted clipping mask appended to them which I then hollow point select and delete EVERY time so I can simply move my images without having to worry about also moving annoying clipping masks. Does anyone know how I can simply paste my screenshots without a silly clipping mask coming along for the ride?
(17" "Unibody" MacBook Pro Illustrator CS3)

Wade, I fully understand the method you're proposing. I'm just saying it's comparatively cumbersome. It's more steps and way more mouse mileage See, You're saying I should...
1) Capture a screen region to the desktop (Cmd,Shift,4) then
2) Bring Illustrator to the foreground (Cmd,Tab)
3) Bring the finder to the foreground (Cmd,Tab)
4) Navigate to the desktop (Click)
5) Drag & Drop the screenshot into Illustrator (Click,Drag)
6) Delete the screenshot from the desktop (Cmd,Delete) and
7) Empty the trash (Cmd,Option,Shift,Delete).
Instead of...
1) Capture a screen region to the clipboard (Cmd,Option,Shift,4)
2) Bring Illustrator to the foreground (Cmd,Tab)
3) Paste the screenshot (Cmd,V)
Then, only because CS3 adds a senseless clipping mask...
4) Select the hollow arrow (A)
5) Select the unwanted clipping mask (Click)
6) Delete the clipping mask.
I'm simply asking the community if there's a way to avoid those last 3 steps and make Illustrator behave the way it did before the CS era.
Ok, that's all the time I have except to thank anyone with an answer.

When is SELECT FOR UPDATE used

DB version:10gR2
Since another thread of mine on this subject didn't go well, i am starting another thread.
When exactly is SELECT..FOR UPDATE statement used? With the exception of using SELECT...FOR UPDATE in CURSOR declaration, I've rarely seen SELECT ...FOR UPDATE being used explicitlyby PL/SQL gurus in our firm. Why didn't they use SELECT..FOR UPDATE(i mean a stand alone SELECT FOR UPDATE, <em>not as a part of Cursor</em>) to lock rows before UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT in their codes?
Edited by: M.Everett on Oct 20, 2008 12:00 PM
edited the initial post to let the users know that I am refering to a stand alone SELECT FOR UPDATE statement, not the part of a cursor

M.Everett wrote:
What i gather from various sources in the Internet:
1. SELECT FOR UPDATE is used mainly on CURSORs and very rarely used as a stand alone statement (if this is not the case you would have seen SELECT FOR UPDATE statements before every UPDATEs and DELETEs in PL/SQL codes)
2. Stand alone SELECT FOR UPDATEs are used mainly when dealing with CLOB, BLOB
Am i right in making these conclusions?1. This is probably a fair assumption.
2. Not really. SELECT FOR UPDATE is not a requirement when dealign with (C|B)LOBs.
SELECT FOR UPDATE allows an easy form of reference when you come to update rows in a cursor loop (although cursor loops should be rarely used), because rather than having to include a where condition on key columns you can just refer to the CURRENT ROW. Obviously, the main reason for using SFUs is the locking and this can become a requirement in some business environments where a user "picks up" a record to deal with and other users will then not see that record in their list or be able to select it for themselves.
;)

Clipping mask wont work

hey everyone...
when in illustrator cs4...i try to put texture on my text and when i try add a clipping mask, i select it and it doesnt work...the text will become seee through and the texture is gone
please forgive my explanation as its hard to explain...i think im doing everything right?? what could be going wrong???

shepney wrote:
yeah i do, just dont know why it goes blank
No you don't Jacob has the right answer this is a question of semantics.
This is how it works
you have text and you have the texture art
OOOPs I posted that too soon
you place the text on top of the texture art that is the text is in the front
Then you hit the keys command 7 or control 7 or object>Clipping Mask>Make and you get this
I did not exactly use a texture but it is the same thing

[CS4] Clipping Mask issue (bug?) - Beachball when I try to select masked group

I have a somewhat complex compound path (1400 points) that I've duplicated several times and clipped. I want to make a second copy of this clipped set of objects. When I try to select the group that contains the clipping mask (with the selection tool or in the layers palette) illustrator chugs for over a minute. Once it's done chugging and I have my group selected I hit copy and paste. It chugs for another minute and then does nothing but deselect my group.
I saved the file down into CS3 format and opened it in CS3. I have no trouble with copy, paste, select, scale, or anything when I'm in CS3 - no slowdown at all. I saved the file in CS3 and opened the CS3 format file in CS4 and I still have the beachball/chug problem.
I'd like to note that the trouble begins only when I apply the clipping mask. I can select all those objects and copy/paste/rotate/scale/whatever until I apply a mask and then I can't do anything to them. The clipping mask itself is rather simple - only 26 points.
I'm on a G5 with 8gigs of RAM and over 30gigs of available space in my scratch disc. Any advice or any other users who've had this problem?

No that is not true and you know CS 3 does not come close to CS4 in performance and if I were you I would download the trial, although I have feeling you do not have the resources to to actually run the program and that has you quite miffed,
Perhaps the next release will finally release you, so long!
Tracy I found that there s a setting that is on by default in CS 4 that would make things go a bit slow and always has if selected by the user.
Clearly a mistake I would think but for some reason the default settings for the raster effects is 300 ppi as opposed to 72 ppi which really many times will eat up the memory no matter how much you have, and Illustrator can only use a limited amount of RAM something like 2GB, so that the amount of RAM is not the issue and the scratch could be as wide open as possible but it still will choke.
It may not have the resource to as in your case make a review. So I would try setting the document raster image effects setting to 72 ppi and then when outputting it change it to 300ppi or tell the printer to do so.
Hans I am sure you will now be relieved to find out that CS4 is behaving as it should with the right setting.
Enjoy the trial it is free. You are going to love CS 4.
I am mistaken Tracy and Hans CS 3 also has the default setting at 300 ppi I should have checked first.
Yes Hans this might be an issue that is a strike against CS4 on large complex projects
I am certain it was good idea to change the clipping path behavior. The question is how big or complex does the file have to be before this happens.
Hans you should still try the trial and see for yourself. Of course if you don't have the resources it might be difficult to load the trial.
I would still try changing the setting to 722 ppi and changing it for output after the work has been completed.
Yes I think you found and important bug.

Is there a fix for the slow processing yet? Clipping mask slows down Illustrator CS4 to the point it can't be used

I've seen a few older posts regarding CS4's bug with applying a clipping mask to any image that is somewhat complex, but have yet to find an answer.
The problem is, any time a clipping mask is applied to a semi-complex shape, Illustrator CS4 slows almost to a halt. We're talking 10 minutes of the beach ball to apply the mask and then another few minutes to do anything else with the document. This is unacceptable. My system is loaded (Dual 1.8 GHz G5, 1.25 GB of memory). The exact same files process fine in CS3. Many of our other designers are running iMacs and cannot work on the files at all using CS4. There has to be an answer to this problem.
Prefs have been deleted, Document Raster Effects has been lowered. Any other suggestions?
Your help is greatly appreciated.

My system is loaded (Dual 1.8 GHz G5, 1.25 GB of memory).
Uhm.. that's "loaded"? That's like the slowest G5 made with almost the minimum amount of RAM.
But.. I agree with you. Clipping masks seems to drastically slow CS4 down. Even if an object isn't really complex, but included many objects. I'm running a much faster system than you are and I have to wait around 3 to 10 seconds after any operation for some files. It's annoying. So far, I've not found any solution other than to expand and clip the masks.

Clipping Mask for placement into InDesign document

I have a drawing in Illustrator CS3.
I need to "place" certain sections of this drawing into an InDesign CS3 document using the File--->Place command. These sections will need a 1 pt black border when they get "placed" into InDesign.
Pretty sure Clipping Masks are the answer but I've never used them. Can someone tell me how to do this? Do I need to create new files from the Clipping Masks to pull this off?

multiple Clipping Masks on the same drawing
This would entail making a compound clipping mask with many "windows". You will need to give the mask a stroke afterwards
Just save your Illie file with pdf compatability an place it into InDesign in the usual way (Cmd+D).
Like this:
Left to right: Artwork, rectangles (compounded together), select both, Cmd+7 and add stroke

Selecting objects AFTER they have a clipping mask applied.

Hi There,
What really disturbs me about Illustrator is that after I apply a clipping mask to a set of objects, the program assumes that I would want to actually select that object if the cursor hovers above that masked object if it is outside the boundary of the clipping mask. It's like selecting the "invisible". Is there an option that will allow me to turn that function off?
The logic should be something like:
if object has a clipping mask and
cursor hovers above clipped object OUTSIDE of the clipping mask boundary
then
do not highlight or allow user to select the clipped object
Likewise, this logic should be implemented in the interface:
if object has a clipping mask and
cursor hovers above clipped object INSIDE of the clipping mask boundary
then
highlight the clipped object and allow them to select it.
Anybody know any work arounds? Did they address this in CS4? It's really annoying to have to lock and unlock objects all the time.
Thanks,
Laz

It's not a problem. In PostScript thinking it's
quite normal that a couple of graphic objects
defines one or more paths, and that a clipping path
is applied to the whole underlying path system.
If those paths or path fragments which are outside
the clipping path could not be selected, then it
would be rather difficult to handle paths which are
simultaneously inside and outside the clipping area.
Therefore it's necessary to have access to the whole
underlying graphic - not only to the path fragments
which are entirely inside the clipping area.
Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

Clipping mask VS. Selection for restricting area?

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