User guide

30 Layers, Masks, and Blending
It's sometimes helpful to switch on the View Mask setting, which hides the layer
and lets you see only the mask, in all its grayscale glory. For example, a Reveal
All mask appears pure white in View Mask mode—the white represents a clear
mask with no effect on the underlying layer pixels' opacity. View Mask can also
be useful in the latter stages of working on a mask, to locate any small regions
that may have escaped your attention.
To view the active layer's mask:
• Alt-click the mask thumbnail, to display the mask in black and white.
Alt-click a second time to view the mask as a tinted overlay.
To stop viewing the mask, click on the layer thumbnail.
White or light portions of the mask reveal layer pixels (make them more
opaque). Black or dark portions hide layer pixels (making them more
transparent).
You can disable the mask to see how the layer looks without the mask's effects.
Note that disabling the mask is not the same as canceling Edit Mask mode—it
only affects your view of the layer, not which plane (i.e. mask or layer) you're
working on.
To disable the active layer's mask:
• Shift-click the mask preview thumbnail. (Shift-click again to enable
masking again.)
When the mask is disabled, a red "X" appears across its
thumbnail.
If you want to fine-tune a mask or layer's position independently of each other
it’s possible to unlink them. You may have noticed a small link button between
the layer and mask thumbnails on the Layers tab, i.e.
A click on this
button will unlink the layer and mask, changing the button to
display a red cross through it ( ). By selecting the layer or mask thumbnail, you
can then drag the layer or mask on the page, respectively. After fine-tuning, click
the button to relink the mask to the layer.