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296 Photo Regions and Masks

The Photo Region and Mask tools

The mask drawing tools can be found on the mask tool flyout bar.

The mask tool flyout bar

The MASK PAINTER TOOL is the default mask tool and allows you to 'paint' over
the area you want to mask. Choose an appropriate nib size from the InfoBar and
create a mask shape by stroking over the object. Holding down the 'Shift' key
together with the left mouse button will let you erase parts of the mask.
Use the Freehand Mask tool to draw closed shapes around the areas or objects
you want to mask in much the same way as you would a pencil. Like the
Freehand and Brush tool the InfoBar also has a smoothing control and you can
also hold down the 'Shift' key to erase your line as you draw.
The RECTANGLE MASK tool lets you drag a rectangular mask area. You can
modify your shape using the width and height settings on the InfoBar.
Use the SHOW MASK OR REGION button to toggle the mask on or off. Turning off a
mask/region in this way does not delete it, so you can get it back at any time by
turning it on again, but while turned off it won’t affect any mask/region-aware
operations.
The INVERT MASK button inverts the masked area so masked areas become
unmasked and vice-versa.

Use the CLEAR MASK button to remove all the mask shapes.

The INVERT and CLEAR functions also appear on the infobar.

On the infobar there is also a toggle for turning mask/region outlines on and off. This is
only normally useful when using these tools to edit regions inside Photo Groups. All it
does is turn off the outline, so this toggle is Not the same as the SHOW MASK OR REGION
button described above, which turns on/off the whole mask/region. See Photo Groups
(on page 354) for details.

For more information on the smoothing control feature see the Freehand and Brush tool.