Unpopular opinion: clipping masks are overused for simple layouts

For two years I built every project around clipping masks, thinking they were the professional way to handle images and shapes. Last month I redesigned a menu for a small cafe in Dayton and kept fighting layer overlaps and export glitches. Turns out I could have just used basic shape layers with the images placed on top, no mask needed. What tipped me off was watching a coworker finish the same type of layout in half the time while I was still adjusting mask boundaries. Now I only reach for a mask when I actually need a complex composite, like a photo bleeding into a circle. Simple stacking saves me about 30 minutes per file, and it's way easier to hand off to devs. Has anyone else ditched a fancy tool after realizing the plain option worked fine all along?

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1 Comment

rowan_anderson9d ago

Pretty much every tool has a time and place. Simple stuff calls for simple methods.