How to add a mask in Affinity Designer

In the previous Affinity Designer tutorial, we learned how to use the Artistic Text Tool. We’re close to the end, but first, let’s discover how to add a mask in Affinity Designer.

You can also learn all the basics of this software in our ultimate Affinity Designer tutorial for beginners. Here, we’re going into full detail.

If you’re more of a video tutorial kind of person, check out the free course below from the Tuts+ YouTube channel.

Let’s add a mask to our Affinity Designer project. To do that, take the text and drop it on the layer’s thumbnail. 

Now, duplicate the image from the Layers panel by selecting it and hitting Command-J. Expand the duplicated image layer and delete the mask. Bring that layer back behind the text layer.

We’ll use a Blend Mode trick to create the effect of the image bleeding out of the mask. So select the image, go to Blend Mode, and choose Divide from the dropdown menu.

Blend modes require some sort of color behind the object in order to blend. We’ll follow some steps to achieve that.

Let’s go ahead and turn this into an artboard. We’ll go to the Artboard Tool, click Insert Artboard, and give it a fill color from our color panel. 

Apply any color by dragging the sliders. Darken the background for better visibility of the image. Note that it’s starting to bleed in some spots.

Now that we’ve done that, let’s bring “Futura” back. It’s hard to see the word, so we’ll create a rectangle to frame it. Select the Rectangle Tool and drag the shape out.

Select the rectangle. Use the color picker to make it the same red as the one in the original image. Get rid of the stroke. Go back to the fill and change the color of “Futura” to white.

It’s still hard to read, so bring the rectangle up above everything else. Now, we’ll make sure the rectangle is sized exactly to our text.

So select the text first. Hold Shift, and then select the rectangle. Go up to the Align panel, centering it vertically and to Selection Bounds. 

Below you’ll see the Make Same option. As the name suggests, this helps you make the shape the same width and height. Finally, just click Apply. 

Use the Contour Tool to add a bit of padding. Let’s also make the corners sharp.