When building complex creatives, you sometimes need to display only a portion of a layer, for example, showing an image through a rounded frame, or revealing a shape only within a specific area. Masked Groups make this possible by letting you define a clipping shape (the mask) that controls the visible area of all layers inside the group.
Unlike flattening or cropping, masking is fully non-destructive: the layers inside the group remain intact and editable at all times. You can move, resize, or reshape the mask whenever you need to.
What is a Masked Group?
A Masked Group is a special type of group that contains a mask layer at the top of its stack. The mask defines the visible area: anything inside the mask shape is shown, and everything outside is hidden.
With Masked Groups, you can:
Non-destructive editing: All layers inside the group remain fully editable, no pixels are permanently removed.
Flexible shape: The mask can be a rectangle or a circle, and can be freely repositioned, resized, and rotated.
Stackable: A Masked Group behaves like a regular group for the rest of your design you can move it, nest it, or apply transformations to it as a whole.
Good to know: Masking works on any type of layer, images, shapes, texts. All layers inside the Masked Group are clipped by the same mask.
Converting a Group to a Masked Group
You can turn any existing group into a Masked Group in a single click directly from the right panel.
Prerequisite: You need to have a group already created before converting it. If you haven't grouped your layers yet, select them and use Ctrl / Cmd + G or click Group Layers in the right panel first.
Select the group you want to mask by clicking on it in the Layer Manager or directly on the artboard.
In the right panel, locate the group options section and click Convert to Masked Group.
The group is instantly converted. A new mask layer appears at the top of the group in the Layer Manager, and the group icon updates to reflect the masked state.
Converting a group to a Masked Group does not affect the layers inside — their positions, sizes, and properties are all preserved.
Editing the Mask on the Artboard
The mask is a live, interactive layer on the artboard. Once a Masked Group is created, you can manipulate the mask visually, just as you would any other layer.
Selecting the Mask
Click once on the Masked Group to select the group as a whole.
Then click the Mask layer directly in the Layer Manager.
Moving the Mask
With the mask selected, click and drag it to reposition it over your content. The visible area of your clipped layers will update in real time as you move the mask.
Resizing the Mask
Drag any of the handles on the mask's bounding box to resize it:
Drag a corner handle to resize freely (hold
Shiftto constrain the aspect ratio).Drag a side handle to resize along a single axis only.
Rotating the Mask
Hover slightly outside a corner handle until the rotation cursor appears, then drag to rotate the mask. Only the visible clipping area rotates, the content layers inside the group remain in their original orientation unless you rotate them separately.
You can also move and resize the mask by editing the X, Y, Width, and Height values directly in the right panel for pixel-perfect precision.
Editing the Mask in the Right Panel
For finer control over the mask, the right panel offers additional properties when the mask layer is selected. The most important option is the ability to change the shape of the mask.
Changing the Mask Shape
Two shapes are available:
Rectangle : A straight-edged rectangular clipping area. This is the default shape when converting a group. Best for banner crops, standard image frames, and card layouts.
Circle : An elliptical clipping area. When width equals height, it produces a perfect circle. Best for avatar frames, circular thumbnails, and badge-style designs.
To change the mask shape:
Select the mask layer : by clicking it in the Layer Manager.
In the right panel, locate the Shape option under the mask properties section.
Click Rectangle or Circle to switch the mask shape instantly. The clipping area on the artboard will update immediately.
Note: Switching between shapes does not reset the mask's position, size, or rotation, your layout adjustments are preserved when changing shape.
Adjusting Position and Size from the Right Panel
With the mask layer selected, you can use the standard layout fields in the right panel to set exact values:
X / Y: The position of the mask relative to the group's origin.
Width / Height: The dimensions of the clipping area in pixels.
Rotation: The angle of the mask, from 0° to 360°.
Troubleshooting
The "Convert to Masked Group" button is not visible Make sure you have selected a group layer, not an individual layer. The conversion button only appears in the right panel when a group is selected. If you have a single layer selected, group it first with |
The mask is not clipping my content Verify that the content layers you want to clip are inside the Masked Group in the Layer Manager. Layers outside the group will not be affected by the mask. Drag any unclipped layers into the group to include them. |
The mask shape appears but all content is hidden This usually happens when the mask layer has been moved outside the visible canvas area, or its size has been reduced to zero. Select the mask layer and check its Width, Height, X, and Y values in the right panel to reset them. |