Layers

Layers are a fairly simple concept to understand.

They are 'virtual layers'! They are //literally// layers, like transparent layers, on top of each other. Each layer in this contex will have an image you have imported onto the doccument on it, and any text you may wish to place on it. Now, you look, your background is on one layer, and the image you just inserted onto this is on another layer. Any text you enter is put on it's own layer as well, automatically.



Photoshop does this on it's own, but you can create a new layer by going to **'Layer'** and **'New Layer'**.

To make a layer 'active' so you can edit it, simply click on it, it will be highlighted blue. If you have so many layers each with a tiny image on them and you cannot locate the image you wish to edit, take out the 'eyes' on the left hand side, doing this makes the layer disappear, click on it again and it will reappear, so you know that is your layer. You can also delete layers here by making them 'active' then clicking the bin bottom right.

The function of layers is to enable you to edit the content of the layer at any point during the creation of an image. Obviously, the more layers, the bigger the file size, but to reduce this, the very last thing you should do when you have finnished your presentation board, is to go to the tiny black triangle top right of the layers palatte, and go to **'Flatten Image'**.

The doccument is then a single layer, and now each component is not directly editable.

Remember to flatten the image when it is finnished, or the image will be stored too large and transfer of data will be slow (for example to your printer).**
 * Just remember when you are working, sometimes you ask the software to do something, and it will not. Nine times out of ten it is because you have //selected the wrong layer//. Always check which layer is active.

Back to 'Creating Presentation Graphics In Photoshop'. Dealing with Text in Photoshop

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