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- Photoshop User Guide
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
- Photoshop on the iPad (not available in mainland China)
- 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 on the iPad
- Work with Camera Raw files
- Create and work with Smart Objects
- Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
- Auto adjustment commands in Photoshop on the iPad
- Smudge areas in your images with Photoshop on the iPad
- Saturate or desaturate your images using Sponge tool
- Content aware fill for iPad
- Photoshop on the web (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions
- System requirements
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Supported file types
- Introduction to the workspace
- Open and work with cloud documents
- Generative AI features
- Basic concepts of editing
- Quick Actions
- Work with layers
- Retouch images and remove imperfections
- Make quick selections
- Image improvements with Adjustment Layers
- Add a fill layer
- Move, transform, and crop images
- Draw and paint
- Draw and edit Shapes
- Work with Type layers
- Work with anyone on the web
- Manage app settings
- Generate Image
- Generate Background
- Reference Image
- Photoshop (beta) (not available in mainland China)
- Generative AI (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions on generative AI in Photoshop
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the desktop
- Generate Image with descriptive text prompts
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the desktop
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative AI features in Photoshop on the web
- Content authenticity (not available in mainland China)
- Cloud documents (not available in mainland China)
- 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
- Invite others to edit your cloud documents
- Share files and comment in-app
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Preferences
- Learn faster with the Photoshop Discover Panel
- Create documents
- Place files
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- Tool galleries
- Performance preferences
- Use tools
- Presets
- Grid and guides
- Touch gestures
- Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Technology previews
- Metadata and notes
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Place Photoshop images in other applications
- Rulers
- Show or hide non-printing Extras
- Specify columns for an image
- Undo and history
- Panels and menus
- Position elements with snapping
- Position with the Ruler tool
- 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
- Selections
- Get started with selections
- Make selections in your composite
- Select and Mask workspace
- Select with the marquee tools
- Select with the lasso tools
- Adjust pixel selections
- Move, copy, and delete selected pixels
- Create a temporary quick mask
- Select a color range in an image
- Convert between paths and selection borders
- Channel basics
- Save selections and alpha channel masks
- Select the image areas in focus
- Duplicate, split, and merge channels
- Channel calculations
- Get started with selections
- Image adjustments
- Replace object colors
- 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
- 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
- Dodge or burn image areas
- Make selective color adjustments
- 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
- 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
- Process versions in Camera Raw
- Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
- Image repair and restoration
- Image enhancement and transformation
- 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
- Migrate presets, actions, and settings
- Text
- Filters and effects
- Saving and exporting
- Color Management
- Web, screen, and app design
- Video and animation
- Printing
- Automation
- Troubleshooting
Use layers in Photoshop to make non-destructive edits by stacking images, text, or vector graphics one on top of the other without mixing the pixels of any of them.
Topics in this article:
Use layers to perform tasks such as compositing multiple images, adding text to an image, or adding vector graphic shapes.
You can add layer styles for special effects, such as a drop shadow or a glow, or sharpen objects.
You can also change the opacity of a layer to make the content on it partially transparent.
Use layer groups to organize and manage layers
You usually start with a single layer when working on a new image, and the number of layers, layer effects, and layer sets you can add is limited mostly by your imagination.
Manage and organize layers in the Layers panel, and use groups to arrange them logically and reduce clutter in the panel. You can nest groups and use them to apply attributes and masks to multiple layers simultaneously.
For some great tips for working with layers, see the tutorial video Organize with layers and layer groups.
Perform non-destructive editing using layers
- Adjustment layers: Make non-destructive adjustments to the colors and tones in your image, and keep editing the adjustment layers without permanently changing the pixels in the image. In short, they give greater control and flexibility over image edits than making direct adjustments. To know more about working with adjustment layers, check out Adjustment and fill layers.
- Smart objects: Smart objects are layers that contain image data from raster or vector images. They preserve the source content of an image with all its original characteristics, letting you perform nondestructive editing to the layer. To know more about working with smart objects, check out Work with smart objects.
Work with the Layers panel
Use the Layers panel to view, create, and edit layers, layer groups, and layer effects in your image.
Turn on this panel by navigating to Window > Layers or pressing F7.
Use this menu to create a new or duplicate layer, work with a layer group, convert to a smart object, and add layer effects.
You can also use this menu to adjust the size of the thumbnails. Select the preferred thumbnail and use the right-click option to select the right size.
Change thumbnail contents
Choose panel options from the Layers panel menu, and select Entire Document to display the contents of the entire document. Select Layer Bounds to restrict the thumbnail to the object’s pixels on the layer.
You can also turn off thumbnails to improve performance and save canvas space.
Filter layers
Use the filter options at the top of the Layers panel to locate key layers in complex documents. You can use the given options Kind, Name, Effect, Mode, or Artboard to display a subset of layers.
Follow these steps to use the filter options in the Layers panel.
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Select or enter the filter criteria.
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Click the toggle switch to switch layer filtering on or off.
Video layers
You can add a video to an image using video layers.
After importing a video clip into an image as a video layer, you can do the following:
- Mask/transform the layer
- Apply layer effects
- Paint on individual frames, or
- Rasterize an individual frame and convert it to a standard layer
Use the Timeline panel to play the video within the image or to access individual frames. See Supported video and image sequence formats.
By default, shapes and text are created on a type of layer called a vector layer. No matter how much you zoom in on a vector layer, the edges always remain perfectly crisp.
When you rasterize a vector layer, Photoshop converts the layer to pixels. You might not notice a change at first, but when you zoom in on a newly rasterized layer, you'll see that the edges are now made up of tiny squares, called pixels.
Certain tools like the brush tools, eraser, paint bucket fill, and filters only work on rasterized layers. To use one of these tools on a vector layer, the layer must first be converted to pixels.
Be aware: when you convert a vector layer to pixels, it loses its vector functionality, meaning:
- Shapes and text can no longer be scaled to any size without some loss of quality.
- Text is no longer editable, meaning you cannot change the words or the font.
Instead of rasterizing to paint or draw directly on a vector layer, create an empty layer above the vector layer, then use any of the painting or drawing tools on the new layer.
Select the New Layer icon in the Layers panel and then use the Brush Tool to paint on the new layer.
Alternatively, navigating to Preferences > General > Create a new layer when brushing can take care of that automatically. If switched on, when brushing on a layer that cannot be painted on (like a smart object, type, or adjustment layer) or if no layer is active, a new pixel layer will automatically be created in the layer stack, and all brushstrokes will be applied there.
When creating a new image with a white/colored background, the Background is the starting (bottom-most) layer. An image can have only one Background layer.
Although you can't change the stacking order of the background layer or its blending mode and opacity, you can convert it into a regular layer and then modify its attributes.
When creating a new image with transparent content, the image does not have a background layer. You can move this layer anywhere in the Layers panel and its opacity and blending mode.
Follow these steps to convert the background layer into a regular layer:
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Double-click Background in the Layers panel or navigate to Layer > New > Layer From Background.
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Set layer options. (See Create layers and groups.)
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Select OK.
Follow these steps to convert a regular layer into the background layer:
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Select the regular layer in the Layers panel.
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Navigate to Layer > New > Background From Layer.
Any transparent pixels in the layer are converted to the background color and the layer drops to the bottom of the layer stack.
Opomba:You cannot create a background by giving a regular layer the name, Background—you must use the Background From Layer command.
You can duplicate layers within an image or into another or a new image.
Duplicate a Photoshop layer or group within an image
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Select a layer or group in the Layers panel.
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Do one of the following:
Drag the layer or group to the Create a New Layer button.
Or,
Choose Duplicate Layer or Duplicate Group from the Layers menu or the Layers panel menu. Enter a name for the layer or group and select OK.
Duplicate a Photoshop layer or group in another image
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Open the source and destination images.
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From the Layers panel of the source image, select one or more layers or a layer group.
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Do one of the following:
Drag the layer or group from the Layers panel to the destination image.
Or,
Select the Move tool and drag from the source image to the destination image. The duplicate layer or group appears above the active layer in the Layers panel of the destination image. Shift-drag to move the image content to the same location it occupied in the source image (if the source and destination images have the same pixel dimensions) or to the center of the document window (if the source and destination images have different pixel dimensions).
Or,
Choose Duplicate Layer or Duplicate Group from the Layers menu or the Layers panel menu. Choose the destination document from the Document pop‑up menu, and select OK.
Or,
Choose Select > All to select all the pixels on the layer and then Edit > Copy. Then, navigate to Edit > Paste in the destination image. (This method copies only pixels, excluding layer properties such as blending mode.)
Create a new document from a Photoshop layer or group
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Select a layer or group from the Layers panel.
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Choose Duplicate Layer or Duplicate Group from the Layers menu or the Layers panel menu.
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Choose New from the Document pop‑up menu and select OK.
You can sample or smudge color only from pixels on the active layer using the Mixer Brush, Magic Wand, Smudge, Blur, Sharpen, Paint Bucket, Clone Stamp, and Healing Brush tools.
To smudge or sample pixels from all visible layers using these tools, select Sample All Layers from the options bar.
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Navigate to Edit > Preferences > Transparency & Gamut in Windows and to Photoshop > Preferences > Transparency & Gamut in macOS.
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Choose the size and color for the transparency checkerboard or None for Grid Size to hide the transparency checkerboard.
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Select OK.
Use the new and improved Layers panel flyout-out menu and right-click menus like a pro and watch your productivity and efficiency soar.
To turn this preference off, navigate to Preferences > Interface > Show Simplified Right Click And Flyout Menus.
Work faster and easier with new tooltips and videos
Updated in Photoshop 24.6 (June 2023 release)
Hit the play button over the thumbnail image or the Watch quick video button to play them.
It's super convenient for new users to learn Photoshop through short videos embedded in rich tooltips.