User Guide

Chapter 5: Painting And Image Editing
An eye symbol in the Channels palette appears to the left of a channel that is visible. The eye symbol
disappears if a channel is hidden.
When you edit a channel mask, the top channel in the palette represents the object itself. For a
typical paint object this channel is labeled with the image mode, such as RGB or CMYK. For other
objects, the first channel is labeled “Object” (see "Transparency masks" on page 671).
The channel mask of an object in edit mode is shown in the Channel Mask slot, which is below the
channel list.
To view the channel mask only:
Click the eye symbol next to the object or composite channel at the top of the channel list. This
hides the object channel so only the channel mask is visible.
To hide the channel mask:
Click the eye symbol next to the channel mask. This hides the effect of the channel mask on the
object.
At least one channel, either the composite/object channel or the channel mask, must be visible. If
only one is visible, you can’t hide it by clicking its eye symbol.
To display a hidden channel:
Click to the left of the channel to restore the eye symbol.
When you edit paint objects you can edit pixels in the images by selecting channels in the
Channels palette. However, when you edit other objects, you can’t select the “object”
channel. You can show or hide the object channel, but you can edit pixels only in the
channel mask.
When you finish editing a channel mask, press Esc to leave edit mode.
Detaching and deleting channel masks
If an object has a channel mask, the channel mask controls the transparency of the object. You might
want to detach or delete the channel mask to eliminate the transparency effects from the object.
When you delete a channel mask, it no longer exists in the document. When you detach a channel
mask, it appears in the document as a separate grayscale paint object.
To detach a channel mask:
Select the masked object. Choose Object | SpriteLayers | Detach Mask.
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