How to create a clipping mask in InDesign by Adobe

Link Naar Tutorial Create Clipping Mask In Indesign By Adobe

Creating a clipping mask in InDesign is not difficult, but it works differently from Adobe‘s other major graphic design tools, Illustrator and Photoshop. It took me some time to find the correct answer though (not counting the explanation on Adobe‘s support site, which I found mystifying…). Here’s how to create your clipping mask:

Make sure you have the two objects in the same layer: The shape object and the fill object.
– The shape object determines the shape seen after the clipping mask is made.
– The fill object determines the fill of the shape seen after the clipping mask is made.
Select the fill object.
Go to the ‘Edit’ pull down menu, and select ‘Cut’ (or: Ctrl+X)
Select the shape object
Go to the ‘Edit’ pull down menu again, and select Paste In…

And that’s all, the clipping mask is done!

I used characters (text field) as shape object (coloring a word with a picture for instance). In that case, you first have to select the characters (not the text field, select the characters using the ‘Type’ tool), go to the ‘Type’ pull down menu, and select ‘Create Outlines’ (same as in Illustrator, and similar to Photoshop, where you have to rasterize text before you can wreak design-havoc on them).

This works from InDesign CS5 and later, at least. Can’t say whether this works in older versions, but I think at least CS3 and CS4 work the same way.

Here’s what I did with it (the city names and squares behind the others in the right bottom corner.

This post was last modified on 21/01/2020 11:12

Boris Hoekmeijer

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View Comments

Yusuf says:

06/04/2022 at 06:07

Great information about clipping mask.
Christopher says:

28/09/2021 at 16:12

AWESOME! This is just what I needed. I saw a comment about this not working with several objects. I don't know if that's from an older version of InD, or what - I'm working with CC 16.4 and it worked with multiple objects - Just what I needed!
Bluey from Australia says:

27/08/2021 at 00:16

Thank you! I spent the last hour looking for a solution and your one worked!
- Boris Hoekmeijer says:
  
  27/08/2021 at 14:45
  
  You're welcome mate!
clippingmask says:

09/11/2020 at 18:14

thanks a lot for describing this good type of resources,
Debi Christy says:

17/08/2020 at 17:53

Thank you! This was a great help. Much easier than trying to figure it out in photoshop.
NZ Graphic Designer says:

22/01/2020 at 23:09

Thank you for this Indesign tip. For some reason I was looking for a clipping mask option but this worked well. Cheers
Ellian says:

10/12/2019 at 06:18

Super and creative photoshop working process,
thanks
Elke says:

30/09/2019 at 11:17

Hi Boris,
I have been searching in Adobe's support for a while whithout finding a valid answer to the question.
Thanks a lot for your simple and clear explanation abou the topic.
cally alin says:

23/01/2019 at 07:44

This clipping mask design is really creative and informative. thanks a lot
Fatena says:

06/01/2019 at 05:52

Thanx a lot Boris. One more question about clipping mask on objects or fonts with applied art brush effects. How to keep that torn edge effect as after mask is applied it does disappear
- Boris Hoekmeijer says:
  
  07/01/2019 at 14:53
  
  Hi Fatena,
  can you explain what you mean more precisely? Your question is not very clear...