MX

Using Masks With Content Aware Scaling
Using the mask feature you can provide further control by protecting areas of the picture from being
distorted. Masked areas will not be distorted at all. See the Masks
chapter to find out more about masks, but here's a brief summary of how to use masks with Content
Aware Scaling.
To protect one or more areas from being distorted, select the mask at the bottom of the main toolbar on
the left of the Web Designer MX Premium window, or the menu "Window" > "Mask mode on"
.
Selecting the mask control turns on mask mode
This covers the entire drawing area in a pink colored mask layer. You can now use any of the drawing
tools to cut holes out of the mask. The easiest way to protect an area of the photo is to use the
Freehand Tool
and just draw around the object, making sure it's a closed shape (you end the drawing on the start
point).
Now when you use the Prepare button this area will be protected from distortion. You may need to
select the photo to enable the Prepare
button.
Note:
You can't mask more than half the image. The prepare operation will give an error if you try this.
Adjusting a mask, or adding a new mask
You can't add a mask to an image that has already been stretched. Instead, if you want to add a new
mask or adjust an existing one, you have these options:
1.
Click the Reset button and draw a new mask
2.
Click undo as many times as necessary to get back the mask, and then use the normal drawing
tools to adjust the mask shapes.
3.
Or, before you select the Prepare buttons, copy the mask to the clipboard. If you want to use
this later, perform a Reset on the image, then re-enable mask mode and past the shape back
onto the mask layer.
There is another alternative that you can 'fix' a stretched image using the Optimize
feature, and then apply a new mask. This is not recommended in most cases because it will produce
lower quality results than resetting the image and applying a mask to the original image.
Content-aware photo zoom
An alternative to content aware scaling is the whereby the photo remains the same size and the content is
intelligently zoomed inside it. Here's an example of the effect.
Use the zoom slider on the Infobar to control
content-aware photo zoom.
The picture remains the same size, but the program automatically detects and scales (zooms) the
Page 931