Clipping

Clipping involves positioning one layer inside another, creating a parent-child layer relationship. The path of the parent layer becomes the new boundaries for the child layer. Any areas of the child layer which lie outside the parent layer's path are masked (hidden).

Clipping can also be used to confine an adjustment, filter or mask to a single layer or layer group.

Before
After
A pixel image clipped inside an object.
Clipping in Layers panel
Layers panel showing the pixel image being clipped (by dragging) within an object (text).

About clipping

When scaling a parent layer, child (clipped) layers scale to maintain the correct aspect ratio. Scaling a clipped layer has no effect on the parent layer. A clipped layer can be edited independently from its parent, e.g. adjusting opacity, and/or blend mode.

Any layer can act as a parent or child in clipping relationships. Therefore both pixel and vector layer content can be either clipped or clipping.

To clip layers manually:
  1. In the document view, position the content to be clipped so it overlaps the content which will perform the clipping.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • On top of the Layers panel, tap Mask and Rasterize, then select Mask To Below.
    • On the Layers panel, drag the layer to be clipped on top of the layer which is to perform the clipping, then drop.

The clipped layer is nested within the clipping layer, becoming a child of the clipping layer.

To clip layers on creation:
  1. Select the layer which will perform the clipping.
  2. On the Edit menu, under the Insertion Targets section, tap Insert Inside.
  3. Draw over the selected object to auto-clip.
Expand/Collapse To select clipped layers:

Do one of the following:

  1. With the Move Tool active, double-tap the clipped object in the document view.
  2. On the Layers panel, expand the clipping layer's entry, then tap the clipped layer's entry.

The clipped layer can now be edited as needed.

To remove clipping (unclip):
  1. Select the child layer you wish to unclip.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • On top of the Layers panel, tap Mask and Rasterize, then select Release.
    • On the Layers panel, drag the clipped layer out of the parent layer to another position on the layer stack.
Move Options To resize a layer without scaling its child layer content:

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