Masks
A mask is a 256 color Grey Scale bitmap similar to a stencil.
It has "open" areas that allow changes to the image and "closed" areas,
that do not. White is a completely "open" area, black is completely
"closed" and shades of grey allow varying
degrees of changes to be made to the image. Masked areas
are represented by an opaque red color.
Masks, in PSP 5, are easier to work with than they
were in PSP 4, allow for greater flexibility due to the
layer function and can now be saved to Disk or Alpha
Channel.
Methods Of Applying A Mask
To apply a mask to an image or layer click on Masks | New on the
Menu Bar.
There are three choices in the New Mask drop down menu.
Source luminance: The pixel color luminance controls the amount
of masking. Darker colors produce more masking while lighter
colors produce less.
Any non-zero value: There is no gradation to the masking. Colored
pixels are covered by the mask while pixels without color are not
masked at all.
Invert mask data reverses the mask transparency causing black to
become white, white to become black and shades of grey to become
their mirror transparency.
Hide All: The entire layer is masked. Editing the mask results
in uncovering masked areas.
Show All: A mask is created but will not display when the
View Mask option is selected as the entire area is the
non-masked portion of the mask. Editing the mask results in
creating the masked portions.
An existing mask may also be applied to an image. Again,
select Masks from the menu bar, but rather than
New, go down the list to Load From Disk or
Load From Alpha Channel. There are four ready to
use From Disk masks installed by
Jasc,
or you can save your own
masks to disk for later use.
To load a mask from an Alpha Channel you will first have to
create your own mask.
Creating a Mask from a Channel
A mask may be created from any of the resulting images when
you split an image into RGB, HSL, or CMYK channels.
- Select Colors | Channel Splitting from the menu bar.
- Select one of the Channel Splitting methods.
- Apply a new mask to one of your resulting images using the
From Image option.
- Save the mask using the Save To Alpha Channel under the
Mask menu.
But the fun doesn't stop here. Not only do we have
masking functionality, but additionally we can edit
the masks with a number of the paint tools.
The Color Replacer Tool
Introduction to Paint Shop Pro 5 : Table of Contents
Tools Work On Masks
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