Masking

Masks hide or show parts of an object or image. You can use several masking techniques to achieve many kinds of creative effects with objects.

A mask can act as a cookie cutter, cropping or clipping underlying objects or images. Others give the effect of a foggy window, revealing or hiding portions of the objects beneath it.

You can create a mask object from either a vector object (a vector mask) or a bitmap object (a bitmap mask). You can also use multiple objects or grouped objects to create a mask, and you can use text (which creates a vector mask). After you create a mask, you can adjust the position of the masked selection on the canvas or modify the appearance of the mask. You can also apply transformations to the mask as a whole or to the components of a mask individually.

• About vector masks
• About bitmap masks
• Create a mask from an existing object
• Use auto vector mask
• Mask objects using the Layers panel
• Mask objects by using the Reveal and Hide commands
• About importing and exporting Photoshop layer masks
• Group objects to form a mask
• Select and move masks
• Edit masks

 community help (adobe.com)