A 1 deg² detail of the masks developed for VIPERS. The revised photometric mask built for VIPERS corresponds to the magenta circles and cross patterns; for comparison, the original, more conservative mask distributed by Terapix is shown in green. The quadrants that make up the VIPERS pointings are plotted in red. In the background is the CFHTLS T0006 χ² image of the field 020631−050800 produced by Terapix. Note the significant gain in usable sky obtained with the new VIPERS-specific mask.