---
title: "Clipping path: meaning in product photography | Herofab"
description: "A closed outline drawn around a product in an image file. Everything outside the path is hidden, which separates the product from its background."
url: https://herofab.app/glossary/clipping-path
language: en
updated: 2026-10-06
---

# Clipping path

A closed outline drawn around a product in an image file. Everything outside the path is hidden, which separates the product from its background.

Also called **clipping mask** · **outline path**

![The folded indigo jeans with turned-up hems on a white background](https://herofab.app/img/ex/jeans-white-1100.webp)

Made with Herofab · Remove background

A clipping path is a vector outline, traditionally drawn by hand with a pen tool along the edge of the product. Saved in the file, it tells layout and editing software which part of the picture to show. It gives a crisp edge, which suits hard-edged products such as bottles, boxes, shoes and furniture.

A path has no soft edges, so hair, fur, fringe, lace and see-through fabric are handled with a mask instead, which can be partly transparent. Automatic background removal produces such a mask directly and has replaced hand-drawn paths for most product photos. Either method ends in a cut-out: the product alone, ready for a white or a transparent background.

Updated 5 October 2026

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