Choose Window > Layer Comps to display the Layer Comps panel.
- Photoshop User Guide
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
- Work with Illustrator artwork in Photoshop
- Work with Photoshop files in InDesign
- Substance 3D Materials for Photoshop
- Photoshop and Adobe Stock
- Use the Capture in-app extension in Photoshop
- Creative Cloud Libraries
- Creative Cloud Libraries in Photoshop
- Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
- Grid and guides
- Creating actions
- Undo and history
- Photoshop on the iPad
- Photoshop on the iPad | Common questions
- Get to know the workspace
- System requirements | Photoshop on the iPad
- Create, open, and export documents
- Add photos
- Work with layers
- Draw and paint with brushes
- Make selections and add masks
- Retouch your composites
- Work with adjustment layers
- Adjust the tonality of your composite with Curves
- Apply transform operations
- Crop and rotate your composites
- Rotate, pan, zoom, and reset the canvas
- Work with Type layers
- Work with Photoshop and Lightroom
- Get missing fonts in Photoshop on the iPad
- Japanese Text in Photoshop on the iPad
- Manage app settings
- Touch shortcuts and gestures
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Edit your image size
- Livestream as you create in Photoshop on the iPad
- Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
- Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop
- Work with Camera Raw files
- Create and work with Smart Objects
- Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
- Photoshop on the web beta
- Common questions | Photoshop on the web beta
- Introduction to the workspace
- System requirements | Photoshop on the web beta
- Keyboard shortcuts | Photoshop on the web beta
- Supported file types | Photoshop on the web beta
- Open and work with cloud documents
- Collaborate with stakeholders
- Apply limited edits to your cloud documents
- Cloud documents
- Photoshop cloud documents | Common questions
- Photoshop cloud documents | Workflow questions
- Manage and work with cloud documents in Photoshop
- Upgrade cloud storage for Photoshop
- Unable to create or save a cloud document
- Solve Photoshop cloud document errors
- Collect cloud document sync logs
- Share access and edit your cloud documents
- Share files and comment in-app
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Learn faster with the Photoshop Discover Panel
- Create documents
- Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
- Tool galleries
- Performance preferences
- Use tools
- Touch gestures
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Technology previews
- Metadata and notes
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Place Photoshop images in other applications
- Preferences
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Rulers
- Show or hide non-printing Extras
- Specify columns for an image
- Undo and history
- Panels and menus
- Place files
- Position elements with snapping
- Position with the Ruler tool
- Presets
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- Grid and guides
- Web, screen, and app design
- Image and color basics
- How to resize images
- Work with raster and vector images
- Image size and resolution
- Acquire images from cameras and scanners
- Create, open, and import images
- View images
- Invalid JPEG Marker error | Opening images
- Viewing multiple images
- Customize color pickers and swatches
- High dynamic range images
- Match colors in your image
- Convert between color modes
- Color modes
- Erase parts of an image
- Blending modes
- Choose colors
- Customize indexed color tables
- Image information
- Distort filters are unavailable
- About color
- Color and monochrome adjustments using channels
- Choose colors in the Color and Swatches panels
- Sample
- Color mode or Image mode
- Color cast
- Add a conditional mode change to an action
- Add swatches from HTML CSS and SVG
- Bit depth and preferences
- Layers
- Layer basics
- Nondestructive editing
- Create and manage layers and groups
- Select, group, and link layers
- Place images into frames
- Layer opacity and blending
- Mask layers
- Apply Smart Filters
- Layer comps
- Move, stack, and lock layers
- Mask layers with vector masks
- Manage layers and groups
- Layer effects and styles
- Edit layer masks
- Extract assets
- Reveal layers with clipping masks
- Generate image assets from layers
- Work with Smart Objects
- Blending modes
- Combine multiple images into a group portrait
- Combine images with Auto-Blend Layers
- Align and distribute layers
- Copy CSS from layers
- Load selections from a layer or layer mask's boundaries
- Knockout to reveal content from other layers
- Layer
- Flattening
- Composite
- Background
- Selections
- Select and Mask workspace
- Make quick selections
- Get started with selections
- Select with the marquee tools
- Select with the lasso tools
- Select a color range in an image
- Adjust pixel selections
- Convert between paths and selection borders
- Channel basics
- Move, copy, and delete selected pixels
- Create a temporary quick mask
- Save selections and alpha channel masks
- Select the image areas in focus
- Duplicate, split, and merge channels
- Channel calculations
- Selection
- Bounding box
- Image adjustments
- Perspective warp
- Reduce camera shake blurring
- Healing brush examples
- Export color lookup tables
- Adjust image sharpness and blur
- Understand color adjustments
- Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
- Adjust shadow and highlight detail
- Levels adjustment
- Adjust hue and saturation
- Adjust vibrance
- Adjust color saturation in image areas
- Make quick tonal adjustments
- Apply special color effects to images
- Enhance your image with color balance adjustments
- High dynamic range images
- View histograms and pixel values
- Match colors in your image
- How to crop and straighten photos
- Convert a color image to black and white
- Adjustment and fill layers
- Curves adjustment
- Blending modes
- Target images for press
- Adjust color and tone with Levels and Curves eyedroppers
- Adjust HDR exposure and toning
- Filter
- Blur
- Dodge or burn image areas
- Make selective color adjustments
- Replace object colors
- Adobe Camera Raw
- Camera Raw system requirements
- What's new in Camera Raw
- Introduction to Camera Raw
- Create panoramas
- Supported lenses
- Vignette, grain, and dehaze effects in Camera Raw
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Automatic perspective correction in Camera Raw
- How to make non-destructive edits in Camera Raw
- Radial Filter in Camera Raw
- Manage Camera Raw settings
- Open, process, and save images in Camera Raw
- Repair images with the Enhanced Spot Removal tool in Camera Raw
- Rotate, crop, and adjust images
- Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw
- Feature summary | Adobe Camera Raw | 2018 releases
- New features summary
- Process versions in Camera Raw
- Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
- Image repair and restoration
- Image transformations
- Drawing and painting
- Paint symmetrical patterns
- Draw rectangles and modify stroke options
- About drawing
- Draw and edit shapes
- Painting tools
- Create and modify brushes
- Blending modes
- Add color to paths
- Edit paths
- Paint with the Mixer Brush
- Brush presets
- Gradients
- Gradient interpolation
- Fill and stroke selections, layers, and paths
- Draw with the Pen tools
- Create patterns
- Generate a pattern using the Pattern Maker
- Manage paths
- Manage pattern libraries and presets
- Draw or paint with a graphics tablet
- Create textured brushes
- Add dynamic elements to brushes
- Gradient
- Paint stylized strokes with the Art History Brush
- Paint with a pattern
- Sync presets on multiple devices
- Text
- Add and edit the text
- Unified Text Engine
- Work with OpenType SVG fonts
- Format characters
- Format paragraphs
- How to create type effects
- Edit text
- Line and character spacing
- Arabic and Hebrew type
- Fonts
- Troubleshoot fonts
- Asian type
- Create type
- Text Engine error using Type tool in Photoshop | Windows 8
- Add and edit the text
- Video and animation
- Filters and effects
- Saving and exporting
- Printing
- Automation
- Color Management
- Content authenticity
- 3D and technical imaging
- Photoshop 3D | Common questions around discontinued 3D features
- Creative Cloud 3D Animation (Preview)
- Print 3D objects
- 3D painting
- 3D panel enhancements | Photoshop
- Essential 3D concepts and tools
- 3D rendering and saving
- Create 3D objects and animations
- Image stacks
- 3D workflow
- Measurement
- DICOM files
- Photoshop and MATLAB
- Count objects in an image
- Combine and convert 3D objects
- 3D texture editing
- Adjust HDR exposure and toning
- 3D panel settings
Updated in Photoshop 21.0 (November 2019 release)
Designers often create multiple compositions (or comps) of a page layout to show clients. Using layer comps, you can create, manage, and view multiple versions of a layout in a single Photoshop file.
A layer comp is a snapshot of a state of the Layers panel. Layer comps record three types of layer options:
- Layer visibility—whether a layer is showing or hidden.
- Layer position in the document.
- Layer appearance—whether a layer style is applied to the layer and the layer’s blending mode.
- Layer Comp selection for Smart Objects.
Create a layer comp
-
Layer Comps panel -
Click the Create New Layer Comp button (+ icon) at the bottom of the Layer Comps panel. The new comp reflects the current state of layers in the Layers panel.
-
In the New Layer Comp dialog box, name the comp, add descriptive comments, and choose options to apply to layers: Visibility, Position, Appearance (Layer Style), Layer Comp Selection For Smart Objects.
New Layer Comp dialog -
Click OK. The options you chose are stored as defaults for your next comp.Note:
To duplicate a comp, select a comp in the Layer Comps panel and drag the comp to the New Comps button.
Apply and view layer comps
-
In the Layer Comp panel, do any of the following:
To view a layer comp, you first need to apply it. Click the Apply Layer Comp icon
next to a selected comp.
To cycle through a view of all layer comps, use the Previous
and Next
buttons at the bottom of the panel. (To cycle through specific comps, first select them.)
To restore the document to its state before you chose a layer comp, click the Apply Layer Comp icon
next to Last Document State at the top of the panel.
Change and update a layer comp
If you change the configuration of a layer comp, you need to update it.
-
Select the layer comp in the Layer Comps panel.
-
Make changes to the layer’s visibility, position, or style. You may need to change the layer comp’s options to record these changes.
-
To change your comp options, select Layer Comp Options from the panel menu and select additional options to record layer position and style.
-
Click the Update Layer Comp button
at the bottom of the panel.
Layer comps in Smart Objects
Consider a document with layer comps placed as a Smart Object within another document. When you select the Smart Object in the containing document, the Properties panel gives you access to the layer comps that were defined in the source file.
This feature lets you change the state of the Smart Object at a layer level without editing the Smart Object.

Clear layer comp warnings
Certain actions create a state where the layer comp can no longer be fully restored. This happens when you delete a layer, merge a layer, or convert a layer to a background. In such instances, a caution icon appears next to the layer comp name.
-
Do one of the following:
Ignore the warning, which may result in the loss of one or more layers. Other saved parameters may be preserved.
Update the comp, which results in the loss of the previously captured parameters, but brings the comp up to date.
Click the caution icon to see the message explaining that the layer comp can’t be restored properly. Choose Clear to remove the alert icon and leave the remaining layers unchanged.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the caution icon to see the pop‑up menu that lets you choose either the Clear Layer Comp Warning or the Clear All Layer Comp Warnings command.
Delete a layer comp
-
Do one of the following:
Select the layer comp in the Layer Comps panel and click the Delete icon
in the panel, or choose Delete Layer Comp from the panel menu.
Drag it to the Delete icon in the panel.
Export layer comps
You can export layer comps to individual files.
-
Choose File > Export > Layer Comps To Files and then choose the file type and set the destination.
Sign in to your account