Clipping Mask: trim your design into a custom shape

Clipping Mask uses a second image (the mask) to cut your design into a custom shape. Wherever the mask is opaque (solid), your design shows. Wherever the mask is transparent or empty, your design gets cut out.

It's like a cookie cutter — pick a shape, run your whole batch through it, every image comes out in that shape.

Why this step matters

Lots of design needs aren't rectangles. Etsy product thumbnails sometimes look better as circles. Sticker designs need to be cut to the sticker's outline. Logos for round badges need to be circular.

Without Clipping Mask, you'd have to manually cut every image to shape — hours of work. With it, you set up the mask once and your whole batch comes out cookie-cut to that shape.

How to use it

1. Add Clipping Mask to your pipeline.
2. Pick or upload a mask image. The mask tells the tool what shape to cut your design into.
3. (Optional) Use Rotation and Flip to orient the mask exactly how you want.

The mask should be an image where the opaque (solid) area is the shape you want to keep, and the rest is transparent (PNG with see-through background works perfectly).

The settings

Common uses

• Round product thumbnails for Etsy or Shopify catalog listings — apply a circle mask to every product image, get a consistent round look across your shop.
• Sticker batch prep — clip designs to the actual sticker outline (for die-cut stickers) before exporting.
• Themed shape designs for POD — heart-shaped Valentine's Day designs, leaf-shaped fall designs, star-shaped award stickers — pick the shape mask, batch-apply.
• Badge / coin / award designs — circular masks for medal-style designs.
• Custom social media post shapes — Instagram Stories vs feed posts often need different shape considerations.

How to make your own mask

Any image with a clear opaque area + transparent background works:

1. Start with a black or solid-colored shape on a transparent background.
2. Save as PNG (transparent backgrounds need PNG).
3. Upload it as the mask.

The mask is automatically scaled to fit your design. Crisper edges in the mask = crisper cuts in the result.

Tips

• Run AFTER Color Removal and Trim so you're clipping a clean isolated subject, not a rectangle with a background.
• Run BEFORE Reposition so the clipped shape gets placed on the canvas as a unit.
• Match mask shape to use case. Round masks for thumbnails, sticker-shape masks for stickers, star/heart shapes for themed designs.

What to read next

• Frames — related compositional tool for borders that fit around your masked subject
• Color Removal — typically run before Clipping Mask to get a clean isolated subject first
• Reposition — typically run after Clipping Mask to place the masked result on your target canvas
• For consistent batches, save the pipeline (with the chosen mask) as a preset. Next batch loads in one click.
• Test on one image first to make sure the mask is sized and oriented how you expect.

Things Clipping Mask doesn't do

• It doesn't generate the mask for you. You either pick a built-in mask or upload your own. There's no AI-generates-a-shape-from-text option.
• It doesn't smart-detect what to keep. It uses the mask shape exactly. If your design is bigger than the mask shape, the parts outside the mask get cut away.
• It doesn't add a background color. The cut-away areas become transparent. To put a colored background behind, use Reposition or Frames.
• It doesn't deform your design. Whatever shape the mask is, that's what gets cut. Your design isn't stretched or warped to fit.