Masking Images With Shapes In Keynote and Freeform

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.  Let me show you how to mask an image with a shape in Keynote, Freeform, and other tools.

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So in Keynote if you want to bring an image in you can drag and drop an image from the Photos App or as a file and bring it in here. Then if you want to mask it you have the ability to do that by going to Format, then Image, then Mask With Shape. Then you have a variety of shapes you can choose from. For instance, I can choose an oval here and I basically masked it into a circle. I can change the size of the circle here and I can zoom in and out. When I'm done I get something that looks like this. But what if you want something more than the shapes offered right here. 

Well, you can use any shape in the Shapes Library and combinations of shapes to create some interesting effects. So, for instance, let's start by adding a shape. I can choose any shape I want. So let's go to Objects here and choose a T-shirt shape. Then we can size it to get it approximately the size that I want. Then with that selected I could also select the image. So I'm going to use the Command key, click on the image, and I've got both selected now. Then when I go to Format, Image, I get Mask With Selection. There's even a keyboard shortcut for it. If I use that it's going to mask the image with the shape and this is the result. Now I can shrink the image down. I can move it around. Click Done. Now I've masked it to that shape. Once you've done that you can double click and you can resize the image and move it around a little bit. But you can't edit the shape. 

So, I'm going to Undo back to when it was just a shape and an image. Now with the shape selected I can go to Format, Shapes & Lines, and I can make it editable. Now I can edit the different points here. So I could stretch it out a bit, for instance, to create the shape I want. Now when I select the image and then the shape. I apply the Mask, we'll use that shape. So you have to edit the shape beforehand. Now you can use this technique to create a whole variety of different effects.

For instance you can add multiple shapes. I can add a circle and I can also add a square, and have both of these. I can size them like this. Now if I wanted to mask this image with both these shapes, well I really can't. If I select all of these and then I go to Format Image I don't get Mask With Selection. So instead what I want to do is just select the two shapes. Then go to Format, Shape & Lines, and Unite the shapes. Now it's one shape. Now if I select the image and the one shape that is there I can go here and Mask With Selection and I've masked the image with two separate shapes. It's really one shape now combined. 

So, for instance, I can do something like this. Creating a bunch of different circles and squares there stretched out. Select everything but the image itself. Go to Format, Shapes & Lines, Unite them, and then select the image also. Then go to Format, then Image, Mask with Selection and now I've got a slide that looks like this. I can double click on it and reposition it and scale it as I like. 

I could do the same thing in Pages and Numbers. So I'll drag an image in here. I can add a shape or a selection of shapes. Select both of them. Then you could see I've got the same Mask With Selection in Pages. You could also do it in Freeform. Here I can bring in the image. Then I can add any shape that I want. Then overlap them. Select both. Then I've got Mask With Selection here as well. 

Now I know some of you are going to ask about text. Can you do the same thing but using text instead of a shape. You can. You can't do it in Freeform but you can do it in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. So here in Keynote it's a very different process. First I'm going to create a text box here and I'm going to type something. Then I'm going to make it some text that kind of can be filled in. So I'm going to select some sort of thick text and I'm going to make the font size huge so it fills the slide like that. You can see there I've got something that can actually use an image as a Fill. Then what I want to do is under Format, then Text, I want to change Text Color to Image Fill. Then there's this little chip right here. I can actually drag and drop an image into it and you can see how it fills the text with that image. You can still go beyond that and click the Tools here and then add an outline, and even set the outline to a color like white here. Create a nice filled text effect.

Once you have a masked image like this you can reuse the mask if you want. All you need to do is select it and then go to Format and then Image and you can click here to replace the image with something else. So I could, for instance, Copy this from one slide to another and then click Replace and then select another image. I can double click it, adjust it, and you could see how I use the same mask there but on two different slides and two different images. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.