Aligning clipped objects

[chadw22958669]

I've been searching for a way to align objects that have an active clipping mask. It seems like illustrator will only align to the borders of the original object. This doesn't seem like a very useful behavior... Who would want to do that? I'm working with a raster image, and I'd like to retain the hidden parts because I'm clipping the image down for responsive design. I could crop the image, but that would be more work than I feel like doing.

Has anyone found a viable solution to this issue?

[Kurt Gold]

Which version of Illustrator are you using?

The issue you are describing used to be indeed there in (very) old versions of Illustrator, but not in recent versions.

Can you perhaps provide some more infos or even share a sample Illustrator file (.ai)?

[marliton]

Hi. Can you share some screeshots for better understanding of the issue?

If you align masked elements, the alignment is based in the mask shapes. If you want align the masked contents you need select those elements, for example, using the layers panel.

[chadw22958669]

In the first image I have a group of two items that are both cropped (ignore that for a moment - just a way to fill in the space while keeping the central content away from the edges). The selection grabs the outer most edges of the original images.

In the image below I have aded the pill to this selection. If I try to align the pill with the image group, it will align based on the dimensions of the original images, but what really matters here is the mask shape.

I'm running Illustrator 25.2.3. I seem to remember there being a fix for this a few versions back, but I can't figure it out now. 

[Mike_Gondek]

Your example is hard to follow. You could object >> transform >>  reset bounding box. But I think your problem is in not being able to explain or know what you actually got. You may have nested masks in the first object. How many object compronise your first mask????

1) image of back circles 2)rectangee on top, another recntangle on top that is the mask that appears to not be centered with the other 2 elements and causing your troubles.

I would release what you have from masks & compounds or whatever you have there. Center all vertically and makes mask again. I cannot follow EXACTLY what you have so cannot help better.

Works for me. The rectangle is my mask only left a vector object, on right the rectangle masks an image.

[chadw22958669]

Yeah, I'm doing a poor job of explaining it and chose an example that overcomplicated things. Here's a simple example:

Image and mask

Mask over image

Clipped image selects bounding box. 

I'm guessing there's a setting somewhere, but I'm a little burnt out and having difficulty articulating what I'm looking for. 

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

For simple clipping, it is better to use a Clipping mask (Object > Clipping Mask > Make)

You are using an Opacity mask, which does indeed show the problem.

[chadw22958669]

Thank you so much, I did not realize that there was a difference. That makes much more sense now.

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes, there is a big difference, Opacity masks can create transparency, clipping masks cannot.

Good to hear that helped.