No Fill Clipping Mask

[alyssah85906165]

In Photoshop, you can select a no fill "shape" with a stroke and when performing a clipping mask it only does it to the stroke, creating a border. Can you create a no fill clipping mask in Illustrator?

[jdanek]

Yes.  The Fill and Stroke are removed when you create the mask.

[rcraighead · Accepted solution]

You can either "Outline" the stroke and use the resulting compound path for your Clipping Mask or build your own Compound path from scratch using two shapes.

An alternate method, using the actual stroke as a mask, is to convert the stroked item to an "Opacity Mask". This option is found in the "Transparency Panel" flyout menu. This method allows for levels of transparency, unlike Clipping Paths (all colors are converted to gray levels on the Opacity Mask channel.