How to Mask in Figma: Essential Design Techniques

Most designers figure out how to mask in Figma by accident. Then they spend the next hour wondering why the mask group disappeared.

Masking is one of Figma’s most practical features. It lets you clip any layer to a custom shape without permanently changing the original content, keeping your design files flexible and editable at every stage.

This guide covers everything from applying a basic vector mask to understanding alpha and luminosity mask types, editing mask groups, working with components, and knowing when to use clip content instead.

By the end, you’ll know exactly which mask type fits each situation and how to avoid the layer order mistakes that trip up most designers.

What Is a Mask in Figma?

A mask in Figma is a layer that controls the visible area of the content sitting above it, using its shape as a clipping boundary. The mask shape itself turns invisible after being applied. Only its outline or opacity values define what shows through.

Masking is non-destructive. The hidden content still exists in full and can be edited at any time without rebuilding anything from scratch.

Figma confirmed this in its official help documentation: since no portion of masked layers are modified or deleted during the process, masks preserve the concealed areas without trimming them down to fit. That flexibility is what makes masking so practical in real design workflows.

Designers coming from Illustrator or Sketch will notice one key difference: in Figma, the mask layer sits below the content it clips in the layer stack, not above it. Getting that order wrong is the single most common reason masking fails.

Figma reached 13 million monthly active users as of March 2025 (Figma S-1, 2025), and masking is one of the core techniques that separates designers who get clean, production-ready outputs from those who keep flattening things they’ll need to edit later.

If you’re building wireframes, polishing mockups, or working through a full website design in Figma, masking is something you’ll use constantly.

What Are the Types of Masks Available in Figma?

Figma supports 3 mask types: alpha, vector, and luminosity. Each uses a different property of the mask layer to determine what content shows through.

Choosing the wrong type is tricky when you’re starting out because they look similar in the layers panel but produce completely different visual results.

Figma applies alpha mask by default when you first create a mask group. To switch types, double-click into the mask group, select the mask layer, and change the mask type in the design panel on the right side.

Alpha Mask

Default mask type in Figma. Visibility is controlled by the opacity of the mask layer. Higher opacity reveals more. Zero opacity reveals nothing.

• A fully opaque fill reveals the masked content completely
• A gradient fill on the mask creates a smooth fade between visible and hidden areas
• Layer blurs applied to the mask layer produce soft, feathered edges

Alpha masks are the go-to for gradient fades, PNG transparency effects, and anything that needs a soft transition rather than a hard cut.

Vector Mask

Uses the shape outline as the clipping boundary. Translucency is ignored entirely. If any part of the mask has an opacity above zero, the full vector path acts as a hard edge.

According to Figma’s official documentation, vector masks use the outline of the shape as the mask boundary and assume 100% opacity across the entire masked area. No soft edges, no gradients. Clean and precise.

This is the right choice for circular profile image crops, product image shapes, and any use case where you need sharp, predictable clipping.

Luminosity Mask

Brightness values of the mask layer determine visibility. White areas reveal content fully. Black areas hide it completely. Shades of grey produce partial transparency.

Per Figma’s documentation, a pure black fill (#000000) on the mask reveals nothing, while white reveals the full content above. This means a black-to-white gradient on the mask creates a seamless fade based on luminance rather than opacity.

Luminosity masks take more practice to get predictable results from, but they’re the best tool when blending images into backgrounds using greyscale images or when you need brightness-driven transparency.

How Do You Apply a Vector Mask in Figma?

Vector masking is the most common masking workflow in Figma. It clips content to the hard edge of any shape you choose as the mask.

Step-by-step process:

1. Place the mask shape on the canvas (the shape that defines the visible area)
2. Position the layer to be masked directly above the mask shape in the layer stack
3. Select both layers (hold Shift to multi-select)
4. Press Ctrl + Alt + M on Windows or Cmd + Option + M on Mac, or right-click and choose “Use as mask”

After applying the mask, a mask group appears in the layers panel. The mask layer sits at the bottom of the group, marked with the mask icon. All content layers sit above it.

Common mistake: selecting layers in the wrong order or having a hidden transparent rectangle sitting above your intended mask shape. Figma only reads the topmost layer in the selection as the mask. If something else is sitting above it, the mask won’t apply correctly (Oreate AI, 2026).

To edit the mask shape after applying it, double-click into the mask group and select the mask layer independently. Resize or reposition it without breaking the group.

Companies like Airbnb use Figma extensively for user interface design, and vector masking is central to how their design teams produce consistent image crops across components.

How Do You Apply an Alpha Mask in Figma?

Alpha masking gives you control over visibility through opacity, not just shape. It’s the right choice whenever you need a soft transition, a gradient fade, or any effect where content should partially show through.

Key difference from vector masking: the opacity of the mask layer directly controls what’s visible. A fully opaque fill shows everything. A 0% opacity area hides everything.

Since alpha mask is Figma’s default, you’re already using it after creating a standard mask group. To confirm or switch to it, select the mask layer inside the group and check the mask type dropdown in the design panel.

Creating a gradient fade effect:

• Select the mask layer inside the group
• Apply a linear gradient fill going from fully opaque to fully transparent
• The masked content fades in the direction of the gradient

This is one of the most practical techniques for fading an image into a background without any hard edges. Spotify’s design team uses this kind of effect frequently in their UI: album art fades smoothly into dark backgrounds rather than being cut off with a hard shape.

How Do You Apply a Luminosity Mask in Figma?

Luminosity masking reads the brightness of the mask layer, not its shape or opacity. White reveals. Black hides. Grey creates partial transparency.

To switch a mask to luminosity mode: enter the mask group, select the mask layer, and change the mask type to “Luminosity” in the design panel dropdown.

A black-to-white gradient fill on the mask layer produces a smooth luminance-driven fade. A greyscale image used as the mask creates complex, image-specific transparency patterns based entirely on brightness.

Luminosity vs. Alpha with the same gradient fill:

• Alpha: reads opacity channel, so a 50% opacity area shows content at 50%
• Luminosity: reads brightness, so a mid-grey area calculates visibility using the luminance formula (Figma documentation, 2024)

The outputs look similar at first glance but differ in how they handle colored fills. A green fill at full opacity on an alpha mask shows content fully. The same green fill on a luminosity mask shows content at roughly 36% because green’s luminance value is approximately 0.36 (MDN, 2023).

Use luminosity masking when you need precise, brightness-driven blending, not just a simple gradient fade.

How Do You Mask an Image in Figma?

Image masking is the most searched application of Figma masking. There are 2 distinct workflows depending on what you’re trying to achieve.

Masking an Image with a Shape

Place the image on the canvas first. Draw your shape (use O for the ellipse tool, R for rectangle) and position it over the area of the image you want visible.

Select the shape first, then Shift-click the image to add it to the selection. The shape must be at the top of the selection. Apply the mask with Ctrl/Cmd + Alt/Option + M.

To swap the image inside the mask later, double-click into the mask group, select the image layer, and replace the fill. The mask shape stays intact.

Placing an Image Directly Inside a Shape

Double-click any shape to enter it, then paste an image directly. Figma treats the pasted image as a fill inside the shape boundary.

This method is faster for simple use cases like circular avatars or card thumbnails. But it gives less control over positioning compared to the dedicated mask method. Reposition the image within the shape by double-clicking the shape to enter it and dragging the fill.

The mask method wins whenever the image needs to be edited, swapped, or repositioned without affecting the clipping shape. Adobe, whose design teams use Figma internally, tend to use the mask method over image fills for complex user experience components where images need to be swappable.

How Do You Edit or Remove a Mask in Figma?

Masks are fully editable after being applied. Nothing is baked in. That’s the point of keeping masking non-destructive.

Editing the mask shape: double-click the mask group to enter it, then click the mask layer (the one with the mask icon). Resize, reshape, or reposition it independently of the masked content above.

Moving masked content independently: enter the group the same way, but click the content layer instead. Move it within the mask boundary or outside it entirely. Content outside the mask boundary is hidden but not deleted.

Removing a mask entirely:

• Select the mask group in the layers panel
• Right-click and choose “Remove mask”
• Or select the mask layer inside the group and use the same Ctrl/Cmd + Alt/Option + M shortcut

After removal, all layers return to their original visible state. Nothing is lost. The layers simply leave the mask group and become independent again.

To temporarily disable a mask without removing it, hide the mask layer inside the group by clicking the eye icon in the layers panel. The content above becomes fully visible until the mask layer is made visible again.

Figma components make this even more flexible. Teams building reusable components in Figma can edit the mask at the main component level and have every instance update automatically, saving significant time on design systems work.

How Do You Mask Multiple Layers in Figma?

A single mask shape clips every layer sitting above it within the same group. You don’t need multiple masks to control multiple pieces of content.

Figma holds 83% of professional UI designers as their primary tool (UX Tools 2024 Survey, n=4,300+ designers), and the ability to mask multiple layers at once is one of the techniques that separates clean, scalable files from chaotic ones.

How the layer order works inside a mask group:

• The mask layer always sits at the bottom of the group
• Every content layer above it gets clipped by the same mask boundary
• Layers outside the group are not affected

To add more layers to an existing mask group, drag them into the group directly in the layers panel. They’ll clip to the existing mask shape immediately.

One mask shape per group. If you need two different mask shapes clipping different content, use two separate mask groups.

For complex layouts with many masked layers, wrap the mask group inside a frame to keep the layers panel organized. Nesting the frame inside a larger auto layout structure also works, as long as the mask group itself is not a direct child of the auto layout frame (more on that in the next section).

How Do Masks Work Inside Figma Components and Auto Layout?

Masks inside components and auto layout frames behave differently from standalone mask groups. Getting this wrong causes one of the most common bugs in Figma: the mask disappears or stops clipping after seemingly routine edits.

Figma confirmed in its community forum that placing a mask inside an auto layout frame changes the layer ordering and breaks the mask (Figma Forum, October 2023).

Masks Inside Components

Editing at the main component level updates all instances automatically. The mask structure carries through every instance without needing manual rebuilding.

Two things to know about component instances and masks:

• You can override the masked content (swap the image) in individual instances without affecting the mask shape
• Component instances cannot be used directly as a mask. Detach the instance first if you need the shape itself to act as a mask layer (Oreate AI, 2026)

Google’s Material Design team, whose components ship through Figma, keeps mask groups nested inside regular frames within components rather than placing them as direct children of auto layout containers.

Masks Inside Auto Layout Frames

Auto layout rewrites layer ordering. A mask group placed directly inside an auto layout frame will break because the mask layer’s position in the stack changes.

Working workaround: wrap the mask group inside a regular frame or group first, then place that container inside the auto layout frame. Auto layout controls the container. The mask operates inside it, undisturbed.

The same applies when building auto layout components with masked images: never place the mask group as a direct child of the auto layout. Always wrap it one level deeper.

What Are Common Masking Mistakes in Figma and How to Fix Them?

Most masking failures come down to 3 causes: wrong layer order, mismatched containment, and missing the “Use as mask” step. Well, sometimes all 3 at once.

One tricky one: flattening layers after masking destroys the mask group structure entirely. The content merges into a flat raster. You lose the non-destructive editing capability and can’t recover the mask without undoing the flatten.

Avoid flattening any layer that contains a mask group. Use export settings instead to produce the final asset.

Figma’s 40.65% share of the UI/UX design software market (Cropink, 2024) means masking bugs are filed regularly in the community forum. The most voted thread in 2023 specifically covers the auto layout and mask conflict, confirming it’s a widespread issue, not an edge case.

How Does the Clip Content Option Compare to Masking in Figma?

Clip content is a frame property. Masking is a layer technique. They look similar in output but work through completely different mechanisms.

Clip content: a checkbox in the design panel on any frame. Hides child layers that extend beyond the frame’s rectangular boundary. No additional layers created. No mask group in the layers panel.

Masking: uses a dedicated shape layer as the clipping boundary. Works on any shape, not just rectangles. Creates a mask group in the layers panel with its own structure.

Use clip content when you’re building UI containers like card components, scroll areas, or navigation drawers where overflow should just be hidden. The Figma community forum’s most common recommendation for scroll overflow in prototypes is to use clip content on the containing frame, not a mask.

Use masking when the clipping boundary needs to be non-rectangular, when a soft edge is required, or when the visibility needs to be driven by opacity or brightness values.

Figma itself uses both in its own design system. Component frames use clip content to contain overflow. Image components use mask groups to handle circular avatars and custom-shaped media. Knowing which tool fits which context is what separates tidy, handoff-ready files from ones that confuse developers when they open Figma’s dev mode for inspection.

FAQ on How To Mask In Figma

What is a mask in Figma?

A mask in Figma is a layer that controls the visible area of content above it using its shape or opacity as the clipping boundary. The mask itself becomes invisible. The hidden content still exists and can be edited at any time without rebuilding the design.

How do you apply a mask in Figma?

Place the mask shape below the layer you want to clip. Select both layers, then press Ctrl + Alt + M on Windows or Cmd + Option + M on Mac. You can also right-click and choose “Use as mask” from the context menu.

What are the three mask types in Figma?

Figma supports 3 mask types: alpha mask, vector mask, and luminosity mask. Alpha uses opacity. Vector uses the shape outline as a hard edge. Luminosity uses brightness values. Switch between types in the design panel after selecting the mask layer.

Why is my Figma mask not working?

The most common cause is wrong layer order. The mask shape must be the bottommost layer in the selection, not the top. Also check that both layers are inside the same group or frame, and that the mask layer has a fill applied.

How do you edit a mask in Figma?

Double-click the mask group to enter it. Select the mask layer independently and resize, reshape, or reposition it without affecting the content above. The masked content stays in place until you select and move it separately.

How do you remove a mask in Figma?

Select the mask group in the layers panel. Right-click and choose “Remove mask.” All layers return to their original visible state. Nothing is deleted. You can also select the mask layer inside the group and use the same Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + M shortcut to remove it.

Can you mask multiple layers in Figma?

Yes. A single mask shape clips every layer sitting above it inside the same mask group. To add more layers to an existing mask, drag them into the mask group directly in the layers panel. They clip to the existing mask boundary immediately.

What is the difference between a mask and clip content in Figma?

Clip content is a frame property that hides overflow within a rectangular boundary. Masking uses a dedicated shape layer and works with any vector path, gradient fades, or brightness-based transparency. Clip content adds no extra layers. Masking creates a full mask group.

Does masking work inside Figma auto layout?

Not directly. Placing a mask group as a direct child of an auto layout frame breaks the layer order and stops the mask from working. The fix is to wrap the mask group inside a regular frame first, then place that frame inside auto layout.

How do you create a circular image crop in Figma?

Draw an ellipse over the image using the ellipse tool (O). Select both the ellipse and the image, with the ellipse as the top layer. Apply the mask with Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + M. The image clips to the circular boundary of the ellipse shape.

Conclusion

This conclusion is for an article presenting how to mask in Figma, a technique that gives you precise control over layer visibility without touching the original content.

Once you understand the difference between alpha, vector, and luminosity mask types, most masking problems disappear. Layer order, group structure, and the mask type selector in the design panel handle the rest.

Clip content covers rectangular overflow. Masking covers everything else: custom shapes, gradient fades, image crops, and brightness-driven transparency.

The auto layout workaround is worth memorizing. Wrap your mask group in a regular frame before placing it inside any auto layout container.

Apply these techniques and your Figma files will be cleaner, more editable, and easier to hand off.