Difference between Clipping Paths and Masks

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 22, 2018
5 replies
5536 views

Hi,

Can I ask what the difference is between a clip-path and a mask and does Ai call a clip-path a clipping mask? I've just heard someone try and explain this but they kept referring to clip-paths as clipping mask and masks as masks. It almost gave me a nose-bleed it was so confusing.

In this instance if anyone done does provide some advice, please do feel free to explain it as though you are speaking to someone who has never encountered either before.

Any advice / pointers hugely welcome.

Thanks

E

erico99195194

Inspiring

Doug,

Ha! They just need to add "mask" in there and we've got everything covered.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

erico99195194 schrieb
Doug,
Ha! They just need to add "mask" in there and we've got everything covered.

You don't understand in which instances you need to create compound clipping paths? It's a requirement, not fancyness.

E

erico99195194

Inspiring

Yeah, I get it

E

erico99195194

Inspiring

Paul,

Yeah, clipping paths, clipping masks - I've even heard someone say compound masks. I think clipping mask and clipping path might be a connection because clipping mask & compound paths are stacked right next to each other in the object menu. I can see someone bastardizing that into a new term using the two.

I also see new users creating clipping masks to fill shapes with solid colors, or trim gradient fills, basically use them in real sloppy ways. Over using clipping masks makes for messy files and sometimes printer RIP's can have issues with them. Use them only when needed.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

if someone said 'compound mask', i would assume they were talking about a clipping mask made from a compound path.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Doug+A+Roberts schrieb
if someone said 'compound mask', i would assume they were talking about a clipping mask made from a compound path.

... because that's what Illustrator calls it in the layers panel.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

There are two types of masks in Illustrator:

Opacity masks (which behave like Photoshop's layer masks)

and clipping masks. Clipping masks come in 2 flavours: object based and layer based. The former creates a group.

The clipping path is the path that is used to mask the image, alternatively you might call it a clipping mask. The whole object is called a clip group (in the layers panel). A layer based clipping mask doesn't generate a specific type of object.

In order to create an opacity mask, you can even use a pixel image as a mask.

Create a basic clipping mask |