How to Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator

This wikiHow teaches you how to create a clipping mask in an Adobe Illustrator file.

Steps

  1. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 1
    1
    Open Adobe illustrator. It's a yellow and brown app that contains the letters "Ai."
  2. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 2
    2
    Click on File. It's in the menu bar in upper-left of the screen.
    • Click New… to create a new file or image to mask.
    • Click on Open… to open an existing file to mask.
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  3. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 3
    3
    Long-click and release on the "shape" tool. It's just below the text tool (T) near the top of the toolbar on the left side of the screen.
    • A drop-down menu will open to the right of the toolbar.
  4. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 4
    4
    Click on a tool. Choose a tool to draw the shape of the mask you want to use on the image. Available tools, depending on the version of Illustrator, that can be used for a clipping mask include:
    • Rectangle Tool
    • Rounded Rectangle Tool
    • Ellipse Tool
    • Polygon Tool
    • Star Tool
  5. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 5
    5
    Draw the object you'd like to use as a mask. Do so by clicking on and holding somewhere on the screen, and then dragging the tool's crosshairs to create the size and shape you desire.
    • The result is a vector shape that will act like a widow.
  6. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 6
    6
    Click on the black pointer tool. It's in the upper-left corner of the tool bar.
  7. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 7
    7
    Place the vector shape over the image. Do so by clicking on and dragging the vector shape until the portion of the image you want to remain visible is inside the shape you drew.
  8. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 8
    8
    Press Ctrl + A (Windows) or ⌘ + A (Mac). Doing so selects all the objects in the window.
  9. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 9
    9
    Right-click or Control-click on the image. A pop-up menu will appear.
  10. Image titled Create a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator Step 10
    10
    Click on Make Clipping Mask. It's near the middle of the menu.
    • Your image will be clipped to the shape of the object you created.
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wikiHow Staff
Co-authored by:
wikiHow Staff
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This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. This article has been viewed 227,123 times.
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Co-authors: 9
Updated: August 6, 2020
Views: 227,123
Categories: Adobe Illustrator
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