Introduction to Layers

This beginner's tutorial explains the concept of layers in Photoshop. Layers are a very powerful tool for image editing, and are a fundamental tool in Photoshop for creating complex images.

What Are Layers?

The easiest way to explain layers is with an example. The following image shows a Photoshop document containing two layers, a background layer and a text layer:

If you like, you can download this .PSD file so you can play around with it for yourself. Click here to download it.

Each layer can be manipulated, drawn on, and moved around independently of any other layer. Imagine that each layer is actually a physical sheet of clear plastic, with the graphic imprinted on the plastic:

Creating a Layered Document

Layers are controlled through the Layers palette in Photoshop. In this palette, you can see each layer along with a thumbnail showing the contents of the layer.

At the bottom of the palette you'll see a little New icon. Click on this icon to add a layer to your document:

You can now draw on your new layer, and it will not affect the layers below it, just as if it was a separate sheet of plastic on top of the image. Cool, eh? :)

Before working on a layer, make sure you click on the layer you want to work with in the Layers palette first, so that it becomes active. The currently active layer is shown highlighted in blue above (Layer 1).

Naming Layers

Layer 1 isn't a very memorable name, but luckily you can change the name of your new layer easily! Double-click on the Layer 1 layer in the Layers palette and you will see the Layer Options dialog appear. You can then enter a new name for your layer in the Name: box, and click OK to rename the layer.

Moving Layers Around

Just like a real sheet of plastic, you can "slide" your layer around on the page. To do this, select the Move tool (the arrow with the crosshair next to it, at the top of the Tools palette), or press the V key. Select the layer you want to work with in the Layers palette (e.g. the Stonehenge layer in our example), then you can move the layer around by clicking with the mouse in the document window and dragging:

A nice shortcut is to just hold down the Control key and drag to move your layer around. This has the advantage that you don't have to switch to the Move tool and back again - the current tool remains active while you move the layer.

You can also move layers above or below other layers in the document. To do this, click on the layer in the Layers palette and drag it so that it's where you want it to be:

Another quick shortcut here is to use the Control + [ key and Control + ] key to move the current layer down and up respectively.

Showing and Hiding Layers

Often it's useful to be able to hide a layer so you can work on the layers underneath it, or hide all other layers so you can concentrate on the current layer. You can do all this using the little eye icons next to each layer in the Layers palette:

To hide a layer, click once on the eye icon. The eye will disappear and the layer will become invisible.

To show the layer again, click again on the eye icon. The layer will reappear.

To hide all layers except one, Alt+click on the eye icon for the layer you want to keep. Alt+click on the eye again to reveal all the layers.

Copying Layers

You'll often want to duplicate an existing layer so that you can work on a copy of it. To make a copy of a layer, either drag the layer in the Layers palette to the New icon at the bottom of the palette, or select the layer and then select Layer > Duplicate Layer... (this method allows you to name the new layer too!).

Deleting Layers

If you get carried away with your layers(!) and you want to delete one, find the layer in the Layers palette and drag it down to the little trash can icon. Or select Delete Layer from the Layer menu.

Preserving Layer Transparency

Often, not every part of a layer will be covered with graphics. For example, with our Stonehenge example, the text layer only has pixels for the word "Stonehenge" at the bottom; the rest of the layer is empty. These empty pixels are transparent.

If you check the Preserve Transparency box in the Layers palette, all the transparent pixels in the currently selected layer will remain transparent, even if you try to paint over them or fill them.

This is often very useful, as it allows you to work with just the stuff in the layer, rather than the whole layer. For example, here we've drawn a black like with the Paintbrush tool right through the word "Stonehenge", both with and without Preserve Transparency checked:

Without Preserve Transparency Checked

With Preserve Transparency Checked

Changing the Opacity of Layers

You can change how opaque a layer is, in other words, how much of the underlying image shows through the layer, with the Opacity option in the Layers palette:

You can enter a value by clicking on the number in the box and entering a new number, or by clicking on the arrow next to the number and then dragging the slider that pops up. You can also use the keyboard number keys 1, 2, 3, etc to quickly enter values of 10%, 20%, 30% etc, but this only works if you're using a tool that doesn't have an Opacity option (for example the Marquee tool).

This option allows you to blend layers together subtly, with the topmost layers being slightly transparent, allowing the bottom layers to show through. For example:

Stonehenge layer with 60% opacity

Blending Options

If you click the "Normal" drop-down box in the Layers palette, you will see a long list of blending modes that you can choose for the current layer.

The best way to understand these modes is just to play around with them and see what they do! Some of them, such as Overlay and Soft Light, are good for creating realistic light effects, while others such as Difference and Exclusion produce some quite wacky effects!

 

Using the Photoshop 5 Type Tool

This tutorial explores the features and uses of Photoshop 5.5's type tool. Photoshop 6 uses a different type tool which we shall cover in a future tutorial, though a lot of the techniques mentioned here will work in Photoshop 6.

The type tool dialog box

Select the type tool by clicking on the big 'T' in the Tools palette. Move the cursor over your document and it will turn into an I-bar. The type will appear wherever you click. Click somewhere in the image and the Type Tool dialog box appears:

Let's start by looking at some of the options in the dialog box.

Font

Lets you choose the font to use for this piece of type from all of the fonts installed on your computer.

Underline / Faux Bold / Faux Italic

When any of these boxes are checked, that style is applied to your current text or selection.

Size

Lets you select the (vertical) size of the text. You can use the drop-down box to specify the height in points, which are 72nds of an inch (useful for print work), or pixels (useful for web work).

Colour

The Color box below the Size box allows you to change your text's colour. Note that this only applies to the entire text; you can't apply different colours to different parts of your text (unfortunately!).

Leading

Controls the amount of vertical space between lines (in points). Pronounced as in the metal. The name refers to the strips of lead used to add space between lines on printing presses. For example, if you're using a 12-point font and specify a leading of 14, there will be a 2-point gap between lines.

If you leave this value blank, the default value for the font will be used. If you specify a leading value less than the height of the font, the lines will overlap, which may or may not be what you wanted!

Tracking

Controls the amount of horizonal space between the letters of your selected text. (NOTE: You have to select some or all of your text first!) Useful for stretching a word to fill a whole line.

Baseline

Applies a baseline shift to your text, or to the selected area of your text. Values can be positive (superscript) or negative (subscript). This allows you to produce arty effects such as starting a paragraph with a big drop capital.

Alignment

The three buttons on the right-hand side of the Type Tool dialog allow you to left-align, centre or right-align the paragraph.

Placing the type

When you're happy with the type, hit OK to place the type in a new type layer in your document. If the type didn't appear exactly where you wanted it, hold down the Control key and drag the type around with the mouse.

Re-editing the type

If you decide you want to change the text, font, colour or anything else about the type after you've placed it, find the type layer in your Layers palette and double-click on the big 'T' at the right of the layer. This will reopen the Type Tool dialog and allow you to make your changes.

Solid vs. Outlined Type

If you hold the mouse button down on the 'T' type tool in the palette, you will see a dotted 'T' appear to the right of it (the Type Mask tool). Select this, then click in your document and add some type. The type will now appear as a selection rather than as solid pixels. This is useful if you want to fill the type with a gradient or other pattern, or if you want to use the type as a mask to obscure or cut out another layer in the image.

Vertical Type

With Photoshop 5.5, you can easily create type that goes up and down the page as well as left to right. Hold the mouse button on the 'T' type tool in the palette, and select the 'T' with the downward arrow next to it (the Vertical Type tool). Then click in your document to add some type. The Vertical Type Tool's dialog is similar to the standard Type Tool's, except the alignment buttons work top-to-bottom rather than left-to-right, and you can't underline. Also, you can rotate the letters themselves through 90 degrees by clicking the Rotate checkbox. Cool! :)

Tip: Avoiding jagged type

Yes, it's the bane of webmasters everywhere - those little jagged edges around text. You see it everywhere - on banners, headings and navigation bars - yet it's surprisingly easy to avoid, if you know how to avoid it!

The jagged edges are called aliasing and are a feature of bitmap devices such as your computer screen. Luckily, Photoshop gives you the option of smoothing, or anti-aliasing, text by blurring the edge pixels slightly so that the aliasing effect becomes unnoticeable. Just make sure you select one of the anti-aliasing options in the Anti-Alias box in the Type Tool dialog (Crisp works well for most needs).

Note that anti-aliasing will NOT work on indexed colour images. This means that if you're working on a GIF image, make sure you convert it to RGB colour first, using Image > Mode > RGB Color. Then convert it back to Indexed Colour again when you save the GIF. Simple!

Tip: Making your type stand out

Often you'll want to overlay your type on a background image or pattern. If the type is of a similar brightness level to the background, it will often be hard to read:

A good trick is to create an outline around the text to offset the background. In this case the background is light, so let's build a black outline around it. Right-click on your type layer in the Layers palette and select Effects... from the pop-up menu. Un-check the Apply box next to the Drop Shadow box, then select Drop Shadow and change it to Outer Glow. Check the Apply box next to Outer Glow

Change the Mode from Screen to Normal, and click on the yellow colour box and change it to black (000000). Change the Intensity to 200%. Notice how much easier the text is to read?

Tip: Choosing a font

Choosing the right font can make the difference between a professional-looking website and an amateurish one. Make sure you don't use more than 2 or 3 fonts in a page, and be consistent in their usage. For example, if you use Arial for headings, don't create one heading using Times!

As a general rule, non-serif fonts such as Arial and Helvetica are great for large type, while serif fonts such as Times and Bookman are better when you have lots of small type (as in body text).

Viewing Image Information

In this tutorial we're going to show you some quick and easy ways to find out information about your image in Photoshop. The tutorial was written for Photoshop 4 users, but also applies to later versions of Photoshop.

The status bar

The little status bar at the bottom of Photoshop 4.0's window is a mine of useful information, if you know your way around it.

Zooming around

The zoom factor box shows the zoom level on the current document. If you want to zoom in or out by an exact amount, double-click in this box, enter the percentage amount, and press Return.

How big is an image in bytes?

The left hand image sizes figure shows the flattened size of the image; this is how many bytes the image will take up when printed. The right-hand figure shows the un-flattened size of the image, or the total space taken up by all the layers of the image. This is approximatly the size your file will be when saved as a .psd. If you have lots of layers in your image, the right-hand figure will be a lot larger than the left!

Finding the image width & height

Need to find out the width and height of an image quickly? Open it in Photoshop then ALT+click (Option+click) on the image size figures in the status bar. A little pop-up window will show you the pixel dimensions, as well as the number of channels in the image and the print resolution. This is very handy for entering that WIDTH= and HEIGHT= information in Web page image tags.

Other statistics

Click on the pop-up menu arrow. Here you see 4 options - Document Sizes (the current option), Scratch Sizes, Efficiency and Timing.

Scratch Sizes shows you the amount of memory Photoshop is using for storing all the open images and the clipboard (the figure on the left). If this number is greater than the number on the right (total RAM available to Photoshop), the program will start to use its scratch disk and you will notice a marked drop in performance.

Efficiency shows you how much Photoshop is using the scratch disk. Ideally this value is 100% (i.e. all work is being done in memory). If this figure drops very low, get more RAM...!

Timing shows how long Photoshop took to do the last task. This will depend on the speed of your processor and disk, and size of RAM, amongst other things.

The End

That's the end of this tutorial. We hope you found it useful. Have fun!

Helpful Tips for Beginners

In this tutorial we'll list 10 really useful techniques and shortcuts for Photoshop beginners. These tips will hopefully do wonders for your Photoshop skills, and speed up your work. Enjoy!

1. Moving Layers with the Control Key

You don't need to activate the Move Tool to move layers around. Simply hold down the Control key (for Windows users) or the Command key (Mac users) and click and drag on your layer with the mouse:

2. Hiding the Palettes with the Tab Key

Are the palettes getting in the way? You can hide them temporarily just by hitting the Tab key. To bring them back, press the Tab key again.

3. Selecting All Pixels on a Layer

To select all the opaque pixels on a layer (as opposed to using Select All, which selects the whole layer), hold down the Control key (Windows) or Command key (Mac), and click on the layer in the Layers Palette:

4. Double-Click to Open Documents

To open a document in Photoshop, you don't need to reach for the File > Open menu option or even press Control+O - you can just double-click on the grey Photoshop window background!

5. Dragging Layers Between Documents

You can copy a layer from one document to another by clicking on it in the Layers Palette and dragging it across to the second document window:

6. Use Layer Sets

If you're using Photoshop 6, check out Layer Sets. These let you organize your layers into folders - very useful if you have lots of layers in a document! To create a new Layer Set, click on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette, then drag layers on top of a layer set to add them to the set:

7. Full Screen Mode

If you're working on a large image such as a photo, you can maximize the available editing area by pressing the F key to toggle between a full screen mode with and without menu bar, and normal editing mode. If you also use tip number 2 above, and the tool shortcut keys, you can do a lot of your work without a menu or palette in sight!

8. Nudging

You can get precise control over the position of your layers by using the arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the layer around. Hold down the Control key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) and use the up, down, left and right arrows to move the layer 1 pixel at a time. To move the layer by 10 pixels at a time, hold down the Shift key as well.

9. Choosing Colours Quickly

Press I to bring up the Eyedropper Tool, then click on a colour in your image to make that colour the foreground colour. Press the ALT key and click to make the colour the background colour instead.

You can also press the D key to reset the foreground and background colours to the default (black and white), and the X key to swap the foreground and background colours.

10. Keeping to Straight Lines

You can often constrain movement of the mouse to the nearest 45-degree or 90-degree angle by holding down the Shift key while you click and drag with the mouse. This works on tools such as the Paintbrush Tool, Line Tool and Move Tool. Great for drawing straight lines!

The End

That's the end of this tutorial. We hope you found it useful.

All you need is a picture you want to multi-color already made (usually I'd have a full sig done before multicoloring, but for now I'm just going to show you on a basic background).

Make your sig or background to use, I'll use this:



Now, get out your gradient tool:



and select a preset, or make your own. I'll use this one first:



Make a new layer (ctrl+shift+n) and use the gradient once or twice, make sure for this one it is on Linear Gradient (the very left setting for it):



Now set the gradient mode to Reflected Gradient (left of the diamond one) and choose a new preset, I'll use this one:



Make a new layer (should now be 2 different gradient layers) and use the gradient once or twice again:



Now make ANOTHER layer (this should be the third gradient layer) and change the color preset for the gradient (make sure it is still on Reflected Gradient). I'm going to re-use the gradient preset i just used, but im going to rearrange the colors.

Use the gradient once or twice on the top layer now:



Ok, that's all the gradients we are going to use. Now, change the TOP layer (newest gradient layer) and set its blending mode to Overlay... It should look like a really wierd and bad tye-dye job right now... thats ok. Change the SECOND layers blending mode to Soft Light. Now, click the to layer and merge it down with the second layer (ctrl+e). It might look a little blurred right now, thats ok. Now merge again so all the gradients are on 1 layer.

Now we need to add a Gaussian Blur. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Make the setting about 12-20 (im using 16.9)

Mine now looks like this:



That's almost it, now we just need to mess around with the layers Opacity and Fill, making sure you can see the multi-coloring AND the background.. I'm going to use 53% Opacity and 81% Fill.