Technical data

Using Layers and Masks 69
Besides the creative possibilities, ranging from vignetting to multi-layer
montage to gradient masking and beyond, a great feature of working on
a mask is that it is “temporary”—if you don’t like the way things are
going, you can abandon your changes and start over without ever
having affected the actual pixels on the layer!
Each standard layer can have one mask at any given time. (The
Background layer can’t have one because it doesn’t support
transparency.) Mask information, like layer information, can only be
preserved by saving the image in the native PhotoPlus (.SPP) format.
Mask-making
Here are the three basic steps in using a mask:
1 Create the mask on a layer.
2 Edit the mask itself to “preview” changes to the layer.
3 Merge the mask with the layer to make the changes permanent, or
delete the mask without applying changes.
1 Creating the Mask
Before you can use a mask, you have to create it on a particular layer.
The mask can start out as all transparent (revealing the whole layer) or
all opaque (hiding the whole layer)—or you can create a mask from a
selection, in which case part of the mask will be transparent and the rest
opaque. The choice depends on how you want to work with the layer’s
contents. By darkening portions of a clear mask, you can selectively
fade underlying layer pixels. By lightening an opaque mask, you
selectively reveal layer pixels.
To create a mask, first select the layer where you want to create the
mask, and select specific region(s) if desired. Choose Add Mask from
the Layers menu and then one of the following from the submenu:
• Reveal All for a transparent mask over the whole layer
• Hide All for an opaque mask over the whole layer
• Reveal Selection for an opaque mask with transparent “holes” over
the selected region(s)
• Hide Selection for a transparent mask with opaque “blocks” over the
selected region(s)
On the Layer Manager tab, a little mask icon appears next to the layer
name, to indicate the layer now has a mask.