How to align layers without clipping masks?

Hi,
I would like to (left) align some layers that are made up of placed photos with clipping masks applied. When invoking the "left" align command Adobe Illustrator CS3 aligns everything bases on the invisible boundaries of the clipping masks instead of the desired results of the clipping masks themselves. See screenshot here: http://badtastic.com/temp/Picture%203.png
Is there a "smart" way to align these layers without Adobe Illustrator CS3 taking into consideration the invisible boundaries of the clipping masks?
Input appreciated.
Kind Regards / Alex

Hi Steve,
Hey, thanks for your tip :)
I managed to solve the problem by drilling down into the nested hierarchy and selecting only the clipping masks and successfully aligning those irrespective of their parent layers. Its also a bit laborious which makes one wish that there were the possibility / feature to not only select artwork based on "same" stroke / fills etc but even by similar layer names. If that had been possible, I could have easily selected one Clipping Mask and then selected all the others based on name similarity without having to unfold all the nested hierarchies to get to all the others one by one.
Anyway, thanks again.
Cheers / Alex

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I avoid sublayers, because they really were never thoroughly developed, and when you open files, you get all your layers flipped open.
So for me paste in front works great for pasting a mask directly above the element you want to mask. Unfortunatley paste in front does not work well with sublayers so you will need to drag the mask down into the the sublayer. But atleast if you have a complex document with many sublayers, the paste in fornt gets you close.
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How to undo permanent applying clipping mask,

Hello,
I hope somebody can help me.
I'm having some trouble with the adjustment layers.
I've made a selection that I want to brighten a bit, and then I make a selection in the wanted area, and choose "curves" in the adjustmenlayers to brighten the selected area.
Then I also want to remove a little red, from only that selected area, and then i choose "colorbalance" and I "alt-click" between to two layers to adjust only the wanted area and not the whole picture, and it shows by a little "broken arrow" that it uses the previous layer to create the clipping mask.
And that just works so great!
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From the adjustments panel flyout menu uncheck Clip to Layer:
MTSTUNER

[AI CS4 Mac] How to Create a Layer Clipping Mask?

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How do I make a clipping mask static?

I have a group of objects that move around within a 700x500 px artboard. The size of one object within this group is a map that spills over outside the artboard. I want this group to only be 400 px high, but not change anything withing the group. Just shorten the height of the clip. When I tried to just clip the height to 400 the clipping obviously followed the zooming of the animation of the group. I want the hight to be static at 400 when the animation plays.
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"1) remove the clip set to the group"
How? When I mark the group and then click on clipping tool (only why I know to mark the clipping mask) I can´t delete it without deleting the entire group.
"2) use style="overflow:hidden" instead of use style="overflow:visible"
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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...
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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
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Instead of...
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2) Bring Illustrator to the foreground (Cmd,Tab)
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4) Select the hollow arrow (A)
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P.S.Elements. How do i use the clipping mask for painting? I can't quite apply it for anything.

I'm wondering if the clipping mask can be used for painting on layers. I can't get it to do anything. I'm rendering race car paint schemes. Elements doesn't have paths. I have Gimp but I want to stick with photoshop. Something about Gimp I just didn't feel it

Could you give an example of what you are trying to do ?
The concept of clipping mask is not intuitive at all. Besides 'normal' layer masks associated with their layer, the clipping mask is a 'normal' layer having transparency. It has a what was called a 'linked layer' in older version. The 'clipping mask' layer determines transparency of the linked layer (which is shown offset to the right in the layers panel) to show that the effect of the clipping mask is limited to the above linked layer(s). Instead of having one layer with a mask, you have a mask targetting the 'above' layer.
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Align layers according to masks

I'm working on a mosaic image in which each "tile" is a masked photo. The pre-masked photos are all different sizes, but the mask I'm using on each photo is the same, so the net effect is that there are all these identically-sized squares.
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How do I make a clipping mask in InDesign?

I know Photoshop can make use of a clipping mask to allow text or other shapes to be filled with images/pictures. How does Indesign do this?
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Have a look in the ID help text:
Help > Index > C > Clipping paths.
You can use Stroke instead of Fill or additionally.
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[scott w] wrote:
Monika Gause wrote:
Then it would be about how I would pronounce it, anyway ;-)
Wouldn't that W sound like a V?
In German: yes. But non when I#m trying the skquawirrrrrel in English ;-)
@Students:
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Sorry for the German panels:
Aussehen = Appearance
Ebenen = Layers

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I'm a newbie to Illustrator.
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HI Elizabeth,
Here is a link that will help you with this issue. adobe illustrator - Take away negative space in clipping masks - Graphic Design Stack Exchange This should give you a bit of guidance on this.
Scott

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The red background show through in photoshop originally...but then after "merge layers" or saving the PNG every way possible (or so I think)... the degree of transparency isn't preserved.
Below looks great. (red bleeds through nicely, good transparency)
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You see your first image before you merged everything down? From that point you just go File>save as> then save it as Outsource.png or what ever name you choose. you need to save it all seperated as it looks in picture one.
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Hello!
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Thank you

Thanks for replying but unfortunately that did not help!
I always select with the solid selection tool ^^ infact when i want to select everything i just use command+a.
Anyway, I'm still unable to group or copy the entire picture without the clipping mask releasing..

Clipping mask is clipping my lines and not the actual object.

Hi all,I'm using the latest CC Illustrator.
I'm so frustrated and hope someone can help me, I've already spent a few hours trying to figure this out and looked through a number of tutorials and troubleshoot forums and I cant find an answer.
How do I stop the clipping mask from clipping inside the line itself, instead of my within the object. I'm still a newbie and I know I've done something wrong somewhere. I just cant figure out what.
Here are a couple of screenshots of my problem.
The end result looks pretty cool, but since this is for an assignment, I need it to work properly.
Help!

You are welcome. No you don't need to undo, you are on the right track, you expanded the lines in order to clip mask with a lighter image, now you need to use PathFinder to fill the holes (the turtle's shells) and clipmask them with a darker image like two turtle I created a few years ago. To use pathfinder, place a large rectangle behind the turtle expanded lines (compound path), select the expanded artwork and the rectangle and click PathFinder Divide button, at this point you will have the holes filled with paths and grouped with the original paths, so ungroup them. Then you select the newly generated paths and clip mask with a different and darker image. This attach image was done with PathFinder, pen tool and live paint. The images I used are real wood species, that I scanned into .jpg files.

Clipping mask vs. selection?

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How to align layers without clipping masks?

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