Photoshop provides a variety of effects—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a layer's contents in a non-distructive way. Layer effects are linked to the layer contents. When you move or edit the contents of the layer, the same effects are applied to the modified contents. For example, if you apply a drop shadow to a text layer and then add new text, the shadow is added automatically to the new text.

A layer style is one or more effects applied to a layer or layer group. You can apply one of the preset styles provided with Photoshop or create a custom style using the Layer Style dialog box. The layer effects icon  appears to the right of the layer's name in the Layers panel. You can expand the style in the Layers panel to view or edit the effects that compose the style.

You can apply multiple effects in a single layer style. Also, more than one instance of some effects can comprise a layer style.

When you save a custom style, it becomes a preset style. Preset styles appear in the Styles panel and can be applied to a layer or group with a single click.

How to use new Presets in Photoshop

You can apply preset styles from the Styles panel. The layer styles that come with Photoshop are grouped into libraries by function. For example, one library contains styles for creating web buttons; another library contains styles for adding effects to text. To access these styles, you need to load the appropriate library. For information on loading and saving styles, see Create and manage preset styles.

Display the Styles panel

Apply a preset style to a layer

Normally, applying a preset style replaces the current layer style. However, you can add the attributes of a second style to those of the current style.

Apply a style from another layer

• In the Layers panel, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the style from a layer's effect list to copy it to another layer.
• In the Layers panel, click-drag the style from a layer's effect list to move it to another layer.

Change how preset styles are displayed

Layer Style dialog box overview

You can edit styles applied to a layer or create new styles using the Layer Style dialog box.

You can create custom styles using one or more of the following effects:

• Drop Shadow: Adds a shadow that falls behind the contents on the layer.
• Inner Shadow: Adds a shadow that falls just inside the edges of the layer's content, giving the layer a recessed appearance.
• Outer Glow and Inner Glow: Add glows that emanate from the outside or inside edges of the layer's content.
• Bevel and Emboss: Add various combinations of highlights and shadows to a layer.
• Satin: Applies interior shading that creates a satiny finish.
• Color, Gradient, and Pattern Overlay: Fills the layer's content with a color, gradient, or pattern.
• Stroke: Outlines the object on the current layer using color, a gradient, or a pattern. It is particularly useful on hard-edged shapes such as type.

Apply or edit a custom layer style

Change style defaults to custom values

Layer style options

Beginning with Photoshop 21.2, you can also set an angle to rotate the pattern overlay and easily change its orientation.

For the Bevel and Emboss effect, sets the height of the light source. A setting of 0 is equivalent to ground level, 90 is directly above the layer.

Determines the lighting angle at which the effect is applied to the layer. You can drag in the document window to adjust the angle of a Pattern Overlay, Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, or Satin effect.

Blends the edge pixels of a contour or gloss contour. This option is most useful on small shadows with complicated contours.

Determines how the layer style blends with the underlying layers, which may or may not include the active layer. For example, an inner shadow blends with the active layer because the effect is drawn on top of that layer, but a drop shadow blends only with the layers beneath the active layer. In most cases, the default mode for each effect produces the best results. See Blending modes.

Shrinks the boundaries of the matte of an Inner Shadow or Inner Glow prior to blurring.

Specifies the color of a shadow, glow, or highlight. You can click the color box and choose a color.

With solid‑color glows, Contour allows you to create rings of transparency. With gradient-filled glows, Contour allows you to create variations in the repetition of the gradient color and opacity. In beveling and embossing, Contour allows you to sculpt the ridges, valleys, and bumps that are shaded in the embossing process. With shadows, Contour allows you to specify the fade. For more information, see Modify layer effects with contours.

Specifies the offset distance for a shadow or satin effect. You can drag in the document window to adjust the offset distance.

Specifies the depth of a bevel. It also specifies the depth of a pattern.

This setting allows you to set one "master" lighting angle that is then available in all the layer effects that use shading: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, and Bevel and Emboss. In any of these effects, if Use Global Light is selected and you set a lighting angle, that angle becomes the global lighting angle. Any other effect that has Use Global Light selected automatically inherits the same angle setting. If Use Global Light is deselected, the lighting angle you set is "local" and applies only to that effect. You can also set the global lighting angle by choosing Layer Style > Global Light.

Creates a glossy, metallic appearance. Gloss Contour is applied after shading a bevel or emboss.

Specifies the gradient of a layer effect. Click the gradient to display the Gradient Editor, or click the inverted arrow and choose a gradient from the pop‑up panel. You can edit a gradient or create a new gradient using the Gradient Editor. You can edit the color or opacity in the Gradient Overlay panel the same way you edit them in the Gradient Editor. For some effects, you can specify additional gradient options. Reverse flips the orientation of the gradient, Align With Layer uses the bounding box of the layer to calculate the gradient fill, and Scale scales the application of the gradient. You can also move the center of the gradient by clicking and dragging in the image window. Style specifies the shape of the gradient.

Specifies the blending mode of a bevel or emboss highlight or shadow.

Varies the application of a gradient's color and opacity.

Controls the drop shadow's visibility in a semitransparent layer.

Specifies the number of random elements in the opacity of a glow or shadow. Enter a value or drag the slider.

Sets the opacity of the layer effect. Enter a value or drag the slider.

Specifies the pattern of a layer effect. Click the pop‑up panel and choose a pattern. Set the Angle selector at a certain degree or manually type in an angle value to rotate your pattern at the desired angle. Click the New Preset button  to create a new preset pattern based on the current settings. Click Snap To Origin to make the origin of the pattern the same as the origin of the document (when Link With Layer is selected), or to place the origin at the upper-left corner of the layer (if Link With Layer is deselected). Select Link With Layer if you want the pattern to move along with the layer as the layer moves. Drag the Scale slider or enter a value to specify the size of the pattern. Drag a pattern to position it in the layer; reset the position by using the Snap To Origin button. The Pattern option is not available if no patterns are loaded.

Specifies the position of a stroke effect as Outside, Inside, or Center.

Controls which portion or range of the glow is targeted for the contour.

Specifies the radius and size of blur or the size of the shadow.

Blurs the results of shading to reduce unwanted artifacts.

Specifies the source for an inner glow. Choose Center to apply a glow that emanates from the center of the layer's content, or Edge to apply a glow that emanates from the inside edges of the layer's content.

Expands the boundaries of the matte prior to blurring.

Specifies the style of a bevel: Inner Bevel creates a bevel on the inside edges of the layer contents; Outer Bevel creates a bevel on the outside edges of the layer contents; Emboss simulates the effect of embossing the layer contents against the underlying layers; Pillow Emboss simulates the effect of stamping the edges of the layer contents into the underlying layers; and Stroke Emboss confines embossing to the boundaries of a stroke effect applied to the layer. (The Stroke Emboss effect is not visible if no stroke is applied to the layer.)

Smooth, Chisel Hard, and Chisel Soft are available for bevel and emboss effects; Softer and Precise apply to Inner Glow and Outer Glow effects.

Smooth blurs the edges of a matte slightly and is useful for all types of mattes, whether their edges are soft or hard. It does not preserve detailed features at larger sizes. Chisel Hard uses a distance measurement technique and is primarily useful on hard-edged mattes from anti-aliased shapes such as type. It preserves detailed features better than the Smooth technique. Chisel Soft uses a modified distance measurement technique and, although not as accurate as Chisel Hard, is more useful on a larger range of mattes. It preserves features better than the Smooth technique. Softer applies a blur and is useful on all types of mattes, whether their edges are soft or hard. At larger sizes, Softer does not preserve detailed features. Precise uses a distance measurement technique to create a glow and is primarily useful on hard-edged mattes from anti-aliased shapes such as type. It preserves features better than the Softer technique.

Applies a texture. Use Scale to scale the size of the texture. Select Link With Layer if you want the texture to move along with the layer as the layer moves. Invert inverts the texture. Depth varies the degree and direction (up/down) to which the texturing is applied. Snap To Origin makes the origin of the pattern the same as the origin of the document (if Link With Layer is deselected) or places the origin in the upper-left corner of the layer (if Link With Layer is selected). Drag the texture to position it in the layer.

Modify layer effects with contours

When you create custom layer styles, you can use contours to control the shape of Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and Satin effects over a given range. For example, a Linear contour on a Drop Shadow causes the opacity to drop off in a linear transition. Use a Custom contour to create a unique shadow transition.

You can select, reset, delete, or change the preview of contours in the Contour pop‑up panel and Preset Manager.

Create a custom contour

Load a contour

Delete a contour

Set a global lighting angle for all layers

Using global light gives the appearance of a common light source shining on the image.

Display or hide layer styles

When a layer has a style, an "fx" icon  appears to the right of the layer's name in the Layers panel.

Hide or show all layer styles in an image

Expand or collapse layer styles in the Layers panel

Copy layer styles

Copying and pasting styles is an easy way to apply the same effects to multiple layers.

Copy layer styles between layers

Copy layer styles between layers by dragging

Scale a layer effect

A layer style may have been fine-tuned for a target resolution and features of a given size. Using Scale Effects allows you to scale the effects in the layer style without scaling the object to which the layer style is applied.

Remove layer effects

You can remove an individual effect from a style applied to a layer, or remove the entire style from the layer.

Remove an effect from a style

Remove a style from a layer

Convert a layer style to image layers

To customize or fine-tune the appearance of layer styles, you can convert the layer styles to regular image layers. After you convert a layer style to image layers, you can enhance the result by painting or applying commands and filters. However, you can no longer edit the layer style on the original layer, and the layer style no longer updates as you change the original image layer.

Create and manage preset styles

You can create a custom style and save it as a preset, which is then available from the Styles panel. You can save preset styles in a library and load or remove them from the Styles panel as you need them.

Create a new preset style

Rename a preset style

Delete a preset style

Save a set of preset styles as a library

Load a library of preset styles