Layer Masks in Pixelmator Pro

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2019-04-08 07:41:08

Hello,

I'm a long time Photoshop user and am trying to understand how Pixelmator Pro deals with Layer Masks.

If we take this scenario as an example:
I have a text layer that says Hello on a white background. I right click on it in the Layer Palette and choose Add Mask
I see a white rectangle next to the Text Layer in the Layer Palette.
In the Canvas I still see Hello on a white background.

Now if I invert the mask as stated in the documentation by hitting Cmd+I the white rectangle in the layer palette becomes black and the Color Menu opens up with Invert checked.
However, nothing changes in the Canvas, I still see Hello on the white background.
Shouldn't I just see the white background? As anything that's black should be hidden and if the whole layer mask rectangle is black then Hello shouldn't be visible.

If there's a different way to think/work with layer masks here, i'd love some insight please.

Thanks,
Sandeep
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2019-04-08 12:08:47

Hi Sandeep.

That sounds weird. I just created a text layer, added a mask and upon inverting the mask to black, the text layer disappeared (as you would expect) (Pixelmator Pro 1.3.3 on macOS 10.14.4).

Do you want to try this with a new image and see if you can isolate the problem?

All the best.

- Stef.
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2019-04-08 17:53:00

Yep, double-checked here as well and all appears to be fine...
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2019-04-09 04:46:16

Thanks Stef & Andrius for responding.

I upgraded to Mojave and Layer Masks works as expected. There seems to be a slight refresh delay in the Layer palette but white shows and black hides, and invert works as it should.

This might be a High Sierra bug, if you guys have access to a machine running that OS it might be worth running through the earlier scenario there.

Best,
Sandeep.
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2019-04-10 09:49:48

by Sandeep Sajeev Thanks Stef & Andrius for responding.

I upgraded to Mojave and Layer Masks works as expected. There seems to be a slight refresh delay in the Layer palette but white shows and black hides, and invert works as it should.

This might be a High Sierra bug, if you guys have access to a machine running that OS it might be worth running through the earlier scenario there.

Best,
Sandeep.
Awesome, thanks for checking — this was actually a bug in a previous version of Pixelmator Pro on High Sierra but I've now managed to find out that it should have been fixed in the latest public version. Could you double-check the version you're on right now?
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2019-04-12 03:22:17

I'm running version 1.3.3 Prism

-S
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2019-04-15 11:35:21

Thanks, you should be good to go, either way!
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2021-03-05 21:05:27

I do not understand, I did not add a layer mask, only the image was very big and somehow I must have pulled it out of the frame or something like it. I can still see the image in the thumbnails

I found the image, it was indeed pulled out of the frame