Creating Layers in Adobe Photoshop CS5
From the book
From the book
When creating a new document, if you choose Background Contents: White or Background Color in the File > New dialog, the bottommost tier of the image will be a Background; if you choose Background Contents: Transparent, the first tier will be a layer, and the document won’t contain a Background.
Get a Sneak Preview
To view a file that contains layers, open image No. 11 of the downloadable images. On the Layers panel, click any layer name,
then click its visibility icon 
on and off.
A new layer is created automatically when you perform some kinds of edits, such as when you paste a selection or create type with the Horizontal or Vertical Type tool. In these instructions, you will learn how to create new, blank image layers. To those layers, you can apply brush strokes, clone imagery, etc. You may add as many layers to a file as you like, depending on your computer’s available memory and its storage capability.
To create a layer
- Show the Layers panel.
- Click a layer or the Background. The new layer is going to appear above the one you have clicked.A
- Click the New Layer button
at the bottom of the panel. The new layer will have Opacity and Fill percentages of 100% and a blending mode of Normal.B
- Optional: To rename the layer, double-click the existing name, type the desired one, then press Enter/Return.
- To choose options for a layer as you create it, Alt-click/Option-click the New Layer button on the Layers panel or press Ctrl-Shift-N/Cmd-Shift-N. In the New Layer dialog, you can change the layer Name or choose a
nonprinting Color for the area on the Layers panel behind the visibility icon (see “To color-code a layer” on page 143). To learn about the layer blending mode and opacity controls, see page 142.
- To choose options for a layer as you create it, Alt-click/Option-click the New Layer button
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Flattening and Preserving Layers
- Layers increase the file size considerably, so when you’re completely done editing your document, consider using a merge or flatten command to shrink it back down (see pages 144–146).
- If you need to preserve layers, when saving your file via the File > Save As dialog, check Layers, and as the file Format, choose Photoshop, Photoshop PDF, Large Document Format (see the sidebar on page 22), or TIFF. The formats that don’t preserve layers flatten them automatically and convert any transparency in the bottommost layer to opaque white.
- When switching document color modes (e.g., from RGB to CMYK), if you want to preserve layers, click Don’t Flatten or Don’t Merge in the alert dialog.
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Another method for creating a layer is to copy or cut imagery from an existing layer or the Background and put it on its own layer. This can be done easily with a simple command.
To turn selected pixels into a layer
- On the Layers panel, click an image layer or the Background, then create a selection in the document.A
- To create a new layer containing the selected pixels, do either of the following:
- To place a copy of the selected pixels on a new layer and leave the original layer intact, right-click in the document and choose Layer via Copy or press Ctrl-J/Cmd-J.B
- To place the selected pixels on a new layer and remove them from the original layer, right-click in the document and choose Layer via Cut or press Ctrl-Shift-J/Cmd-Shift-J. If you cut pixels from a layer, the exposed area on the original layer will be filled with transparency; if you cut pixels from the Background, the exposed area will be filled with the current Background color (see pages 185 and 233).
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