Hover layer bounds in the Move tool

Hover Layer Bounds in Photoshop

Hover layer bounds let you preview the boundaries of an object as you move your pointer over it on the canvas. This helps you quickly identify and select layers without selecting first.

When the boundary outline appears, the corresponding layer is highlighted in the Layers panel. For layers with pixel or vector masks, Photoshop shows both the visible and hidden layer data. Hover layer bounds respond to your chosen Move tool setting in Auto-Select:

• Layer displays the outline of individual layer objects.
• Group displays the outline of layer groups.

You can also trigger hover layer bounds by hovering over layers in the Layers panel. For overlapping layers, view additional layer boundaries that share the same pixel coordinates by pressing the [ or ] keys. You can change these shortcuts in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus dialog box.

Once the boundaries are visible, you can select or drag to interact with that layer or group.

Customizing Hover Layer Bounds

You can adjust how hover layer bounds appear and behave:

• Change boundary color, thickness, and the Layers panel highlight color in Photoshop > Settings > Guides, Grid & Slices.
• Show or hide hover layer boundaries and panel highlights from the Set additional Move tool options of the Move tool in the Options bar.
• Choose whether selecting a layer from the canvas automatically expands layer groups from the Set additional Move tool options of the Move tool in the Options bar.