Layer clipping

Clipping involves positioning one layer inside another, creating a parent - child layer relationship. The path of the parent layer becomes the new boundaries for the child layer. Any areas of the child layer which lie outside the parent layer's path are masked (hidden).

Clipping can also be used to confine an adjustment, filter or mask to a single layer or layer group.

Before
After
Before and after the middle pixel layer has been clipped to the top pixel layer.

Clipping in Layers panel

Layers panel showing clipping procedure.

About clipping

When scaling a parent layer, child (clipped) layer scale to maintain the correct aspect ratio. Scaling a clipped layer has no effect on the parent layer. A clipped layer can be edited independently from its parent, e.g. adjusting opacity, and/or blend mode.

Any layer can act as a parent or child in clipping relationships. Therefore both pixel and vector layer content can be either clipped or clipping.

To clip layers:

The clipped layer is nested within the clipping layer in the Layers panel, becoming a child of the clipping layer.

Expand/Collapse To select clipped layers:
  1. On the Layers panel, expand the clipping layer's contents (if needed) by clicking the layer's arrow.
  2. Click to select the clipped layer.

The clipped layer can now be edited as needed.

To remove clipping (unclip):

SEE ALSO: