The most common choices are White (Full opacity) and Black (Full transparency), but you’ll have to decide which is best for your particular situation. GIMP will open the Add Layer Mask dialog box, prompting you to choose the initial settings for the mask. The Add Layer Mask dialog box in GIMP 2.10 You can also select the layer in the Layers panel and use the Add Layer Mask button from the row at the bottom of the panel, or use the Layers menu – but the right-click method is usually faster. As with most things in GIMP, there are several ways you can do this, but the simplest is to right-click the layer you want to mask in the Layers panel and choose Add Layer Mask from the popup menu. Step 1: Adding A Layer Maskīefore you can start masking, you’ll need to add a layer mask. Now that you know how masking works and why it’s an important technique to use, let’s take a closer look at the practical side of masking in GIMP. This is especially useful when creating complex composite images from multiple different image sources. GIMP doesn’t allow for a completely non-destructive workflow because it doesn’t offer adjustment layers that apply filters non-destructively the way many other programs do, but you can certainly use layer masks for pixel trimming. If you have to go back later and change which pixels have been trimmed, you can simply adjust the layer mask to control which pixels are visible instead of starting the entire trimming process all over from the beginning. With non-destructive editing, if you need to go back and adjust your edit at a later time, you can do so easily because the underlying source image pixels haven’t actually changed.įor example, if you want to trim unwanted pixels surrounding the subject in an image, you should use a layer mask to hide those pixels instead of actually deleting them. If you want to adjust pixels, it’s better to use a separate overlay that changes them instead of actually changing the original pixels. If you want to remove pixels from an image, it’s better to hide them than to delete them. In other words, don’t destroy your original pixel data! If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s actually pretty simple: image data should be altered dynamically instead of permanently. Why You Should Use Masks in GIMPĪlong with general pixel layers and adjustment layers, masking is a key element of a non-destructive editing workflow. I find GIMP’s handling of this aspect to be a bit of a drawback, but I’ll show you some simple ways around the problem later on in the tutorial. The mask itself isn’t visible in the final image, but it can be displayed temporarily while working within GIMP to give you an idea of which areas are masked and which aren’t. Various shades of gray allow the creation of partially transparent areas, depending on how light or dark the gray tones are. If you paint white pixels on a layer mask, the corresponding area of the standard pixel layer becomes visible, while painting black pixels makes the corresponding area transparent. Technically, it works by modifying the layer’s alpha channel, which controls the transparency of the layer. I’ll also include a couple of handy tips for making the masking process much easier! How Does Masking Work?Ī mask is a kind of invisible secondary layer that sits over the top of a standard pixel layer, controlling which areas of the underlying pixel layer are visible. But if you’re new to the world of masking and you want to understand how they work in more detail, then read on. If you’ve already used masking in a different editing program, that’s probably all you need to get going on your project in GIMP. Step 3: Click the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel to make it active, and use the Paintbrush tool to paint black and/or white pixels on your layer mask.Step 2: Set the Initialize the Layer Mask option to White (Full opacity).Step 1: In the Layers panel, right-click the layer you want to mask and choose Add Layer Mask.Here’s how to create a basic layer mask in GIMP: Alternative Masking With Quick Mask Mode.
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