What are masks?

Masks are Raster layers that hide things from an image, just as masks are worn in a carnival to hide something.

A mask in “PSP” is made from black, white or grey portions of layers in an image. The mask can be completely covered (black), fully reflecting (white), or with different levels of transparency (grey). It is dependent on the amount of transparent darkness of the grey value. The darker the mask, the more it hides, and the whiter, the more it shows.

We can share masks and add special effects.

 

A Mask layer can never be the lowest layer in the image or in a layer group.
When the Mask layer is located at the top level and not in a lower level, the mask is applied to all layers in the stacking order.
When a Mask layer is in a lower-group, then it will only be applied to layers in the group that are located lower than it in the stacking order.

 

Loading a Mask

In “PSP” we have a number of standard masks that are added to the program.
To load a mask made by PSP, click the “Layers” button in the menu bar, select ” Load / save masks” in the drop-down menu, and click “Load Mask from Disk”.

This opens a dialog box.
We click the arrow pointing downwards next to the preview window, and select a mask from the list. As you can see the masks are classified into different categories. If you want to filter the choice, select a category from the list.

At the top of the dialog box, in the middle, we find the “Orientation” section. Here we determine how the mask should adapt to our picture. The first option (1) seems to be the the most obvious.It does not matter how big the image is, as the mask will adjust automatically.
Under the section “Orientation we find the section “Options” (2).
The topmost box seems clear.
The box, “Hide all masks” hides pixels around a loaded mask which is smaller than the current image of the canvas.
The box “Show All Masks” shows you the pixels around a loaded mask that is smaller than the current image canvas.
When we select the box, “Use Image Value” the surrounding pixels are made either white or black, depending on whether “Show All Masks” or “Hide All masks” is applied on the original mask.

If you like any mask, select it and click the button, “Load”.

The mask is added on its own layer (4).
If everything is white then the layer appears and if it is black everything will be hidden.

 

Creating a Mask

To create a mask, we have a number of options.
We can paint a mask with the “Brush”, we can create a mask from a “Selection”, we can create a mask of an image and we can create Mask layers.

Let me first start by creating a Mask layer.

Click on the arrow next to the “New layer” option on top of the Layers palette and select “New Layer Mask” from the drop-down menu.

As you will see you have two options, “Hide All” and “View”.
The first will add a Mask layer in which everything is colored black, and the second will add one in which everything is white. I think this is clear.

Select the “Brush” tool and paint the image with white, black or grey. White is for what you want to see black for what you do not want to see and grey is for the part that is to appear transparent.

 

I’m going to give you an example of how to mask an image.
First, open the two images. As you can see I have a photo and a vector image of a child with a laptop open.
Then I select the picture and click the “Layers” tab in the menu bar.
In the drop-down menu I select “New mask layer”, and click the option, “From Image”.
In the dialog that appears, select the “Source window” and click the OK button.

 

Storing Mask

To save a Mask layer, click the “Layers” tab in the menu bar, select “Load / Save Mask” in the drop-down menu and click “Save Mask to disk”.

In the dialog that appears, give your mask a name and click the “Save” button.

To use the saved mask, click the “Layers” tab in the menu bar, select “Load / Save Mask” in the drop-down menu, and click “Load Mask From Disk”.
Select the mask you just saved in the dialog box and click the button, “Load”.

That’s it.

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