Working With Layers
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Layers are the most essential element in the development of any graphic whether it be a sig tag, a background for your webpage, or form of print media. They contribute to depth, color and placement of objects and give you total control of your artwork. Without them you would be limited to one dimension and many restarts. Having a good understanding of them is the key to unlocking the power of PSP.
This tutorial is quite long so it is divided into several pages to make loading faster.
**Please note: If clickable images do not open properly please try again.
- Raster Layers
- Vecter Layers
- Adjustment Layers
- Background Layers
- Masked Layers
The layer series of tutorials will be spit into three units--raster and background layers, vector layers and finally adjustment and masked layers.
We will not concentrate on the technical differences between each type of layer. Instead we will focus on how to edit and create them. So let's get started with raster and background layers
Please have your layer palette locked so that it is visible at all times.
To help you visualize think of layers as sheets of clear glass stacked one above the other and the stack resting on a table. If you look down through the glass you will be able to see the table top. The table top in effect becomes the background because it is at the bottom of the stack.
Now lets open PSP to further the visualization
- Open a new image 250x250 with a white background.
- Set the background color to pattern and choose "stained wood"and flood fill
the background layer.
We now have the table top we spoke of earlier. Before we add the glass (layers) let's take a look at the layer palette.
- Creates a new raster layer. Holding the shift key while selecting this button will bypass the layer properties box.
- Deletes the highlighted (active) layer. In this case it is inaccessible because we don't have any other layers if we were to delete the background layer the image would close.
- This creates an empty mask More on that in the third part.
- The appearance tab shows the opacity and blend modes of the layer.
- Mask tab locks the mask to the layer.
- Group tab allows you to group layers together so that they will move in unison horizontally.
- Layer type symbol. Raster layer is shown but can also be a vector layer
- Name of the layer. Dark blue (PSP default) indicates the active layer.
- Toggles visibility for the layer on and off.
- Opacity indicator
- Blend mode indicator. By clicking on the right arrow you can choose the blend modes
- Transparency lock. This locks the transparent part of the layer so you can not add anything to it.
Notice on your layer palette that the opacity and blend mode options are not available, therefore, can not be adjusted. This only applies to the background layer.
Let's add a piece of glass (layer) to the top of our table.
- Click on the add layer icon
on the layer palette. When the dialog box comes up name the layer "clear". Leave all other settings the same and click ok. - Add another layer in the same fashion and name it "black".
- Hold the shift key down and click on add layer icon . Did you notice what happened? When you add a layer this way it bypasses the layer's properties dialog box. This is convenient when you don't need to name the layer or change any of its properties. Notice also that the new layer is called layer 3. Layers are added in sequenital order even when given a name. The background layer is not included in the numbering process. PSP allows up to 100 layers depending on your computer memory.
- Right click on layer 3 and choose rename. Name it tube 1.
Click to view large image
You can view the content of each individual layer by hovering your cursor over the layer. In our example only the background layer has content (the wood grain) and all the others are empty (checkerboard). This little feature is very handy when you have lots of content and layers!
Save as a .psp file to keep the layers intact then
Go to Page 2
