Adobe Photoshop Visual QuickStart Guide

6. Layers

In This Chapter

• About Layers

• The Background Layer vs. Regular Layers

• Creating Layers

• Copying and Pasting Layers

• Selecting Layers

• Moving, Aligning, and Transforming Layers

• Merging and Flattening Layers

• Layer Housekeeping

• Layer Comps

Almost everything we do in Photoshop uses layers, and layers are so fundamental that it’s strange to remember they didn’t exist in early versions of Photoshop. When layers were introduced in version 3, it was like when silent movies became talkies. A missing dimension was added, and everyone wondered how on earth we ever managed without them.

Layers let you manipulate your images in ways big and small, simple and fantastic. Some things wouldn’t be possible without layers, but even those that would, would ...