CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 Guidebook

64 | CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 Guidebook

Working with masks

A mask is used in image editing to isolate a
particular area (the editable area) without
affecting the remaining part (the protected
area). Editable areas are sometimes called
“selections” in other applications.

You can display a mask overlay that appears
only over protected areas to make it easy to
differentiate between protected and editable
areas. The border separating an editable area
and its corresponding protected area is
indicated by a dashed outline, called the mask
marquee. You can display the mask marquee
only when the mask overlay is hidden.

Left: Mask overlay. Right: Mask marquee.

You can define editable areas by using the
mask tools in the toolbox.

Mask tools

After defining an editable area, you may want
to adjust the area’s shape and position. If you
want to subtract from or add to an editable
area, you can access mask modes from the
property bar when a mask tool is active.

Left: The editable area includes a part of the wing.

Middle: The remaining part of the wing is added to the

editable area, along with some blue background.

Right: The blue background is removed from the

editable area.

In addition, you can adjust the edges of an

editable area so that it blends smoothly into

the protected areas. For more information, see

“Adjusting the edges of editable areas” in the

Help.

You can invert a mask so that the protected

area becomes editable and the editable area

becomes protected. For example, if you want

to edit a photo subject that is set against a

plain background, the easiest method is to

select the background and then invert the

mask, as shown in the following illustration.

Left: The Magic wand mask tool is used to select the

background. Right: The mask is inverted to select the

butterfly.