Using Layer Comps

Design is a spontaneous feeling, so we often do things like moving, hiding, and changing the transparency of each layer. Because it's more than you can find. But there is a problem, for example, we feel dissatisfied after trying various layouts, want to go back to the original state, then perhaps because the operation of the number of steps beyond the scope of history, and can not be returned. The role of layer composition is to store the position, transparency, and style of each layer. You can then simply switch to compare the effects of several layouts. This function is very practical and very simple. Here's how to use it.

That green face is not tired of Ah, then we change one. The open layer layout is shown in the following illustration, with the words Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, 99ut.com, and so on, plus a simple layer style. I wrote these on the drawing board, and if we all feel good then I'll copybook later.

You can open the Layer Composite Palette through window layer comp. The following is the left figure. Clicking on the New button below the palette will appear as shown in the following dialog box. The name is the name that is displayed in the Layer composite palette. The contents of the note can be entered in some descriptive text. The three options applied to layers represent the kind of information that the layer comp stores. Visibility refers to the display, hidden state of each layer. "Position" refers to the position of each layer in the image. Appearance is the layer style, the layer opacity setting, and the layer blending mode. The proposal is all selected. Make sure that the Layer composite panel is the right figure below. Click the triangle to expand or collapse the annotation.

To change the name of an existing layer composite item, double-click the item name in the Layer palette. If you want to change the storage options, double-click the area to the right of the item's name, and a new setting box appears as shown in the following figure. It should be noted that layer changes are not stored in layer comps.

Now we will adjust the layer according to the left image below, while reducing the opacity of "99ut.com" is about 30%. Note at this point in the Layer palette, the indicator that was previously located to the left of the new layer composite state "a" is now moved to the last document state above. The following figure. This is because the current state of the layers in the image has changed compared to "a".

Note that we have just moved the layer position and changed the opacity of the layer. If the "position" and "appearance" options are not included in the storage setting of the layer composite state "a", then the indication flag will still remain in "a". Because layer comp "a" only focuses on whether the "visibility" of each layer is changed, we do not have hidden layers, so we will be considered unchanged. We have therefore emphasized that these options must all be selected, as this is the only way to ensure the integrity of the records.

Now save the altered image as a new layer compound record "Second", as shown on the right. Remember to select all storage options.

Then move the layers to another location, hiding the layer styles for the GL, AI, PS three layers. The way to hide a layer style is to first click the eye sign at the green arrow below, and if the style list doesn't appear, click the Triangle button at the red arrow to expand the Style list. and set their opacity to 60%. Then set the "99ut.com" layer opacity to 100%, and then add a "projection" and "Color overlay" style (this step is not necessary, there are difficulties to skip). The storage layer composite state is then "third". After the completion of the layer composite palette below the right figure.

In the Layer palette, click the Small box sign (red arrow below) to toggle the various layer composite states. Note that the name of the composite state is not switched.

If you want to change the storage state in a layer comp that already exists, you can select the name of the layer comp (instead of switching the Layer comp state), and then press the Update button below the Layer palette (the red arrow below), where the stored records in this compound are replaced with the status you are seeing. This feature can also be used in existing layer composite records to update each other, the following right figure, the current switch to the "Second" layer composite state, and the selection is "a", if you press the Update button, then the "one" record will be "Second" replaced, Make the two completely consistent. However, this does not make sense, here is to tell you should be careful to perform the update operation, so as not to lose the original layer composite state.

You can copy an existing layer composite state by dragging it (only one is allowed) to the new button underneath the palette. The following is the left figure.

To delete an existing layer compound record, drag it (allowing multiple selections) to the Trash can label to remove it. The following is the right figure.

Note that if you create a new layer in the image after you store the layer's composite state, the new layers will be hidden if you switch to the previously stored composite state.

Layer comps cannot retrieve the deleted or merged layer, and if the layer is deleted or merged after storage, it can result in the following illustration. This is not the time to fully recover to the state of storage. So do not easily delete the layer, the layer is not used to hide first. When you click the warning flag, the following query box appears, pressing the purge button to remove the warning sign. This prompt will not appear when you check "Do not show again". If you want to open the prompt again, you can go to the preferences setting by 〖ctrl K〗 and click the "Reset All Alerts Dialog" button at the bottom.

The content in the layer comp is saved with the image so that the layer comp options can continue to be used the next time the image is opened. In this way, we can store multiple layouts in advance to show the customer in the design of the Web page. Of course, the accompanying layer composite information increases the number of bytes saved to the file. In addition, there are a number of actions that cannot be recorded by layer comps in addition to removing layers. These operations include drawing, color adjustment, filters, transformations, and so on. Because of these limitations, the layer composite state can record very limited content, limited to the visibility, location and style of the layer.

However, we will later learn how to store all the information for the current image through the snapshots feature in the Photoshop history, but the snapshots are not stored with the files.