5.0 Working with Layers

Photoshop uses "Layers" for managing multiple (separate) objects in the same file, to open your Layers Panel go to Window > Layers. If you have used other image editing programs that use the same "Layers" concept. Then this should be familiar to you. If you haven't then it's an easy concept to understand, just think of the Layers as a "Stack of Books" on the floor, and imagine yourself as looking at this stack of books from top.

Firstly, when you look at this stack from top, you will be able to see the cover of the first book which is on top of all the other books without a problem, however when you try to see the cover of the second book that is below the first book, you will notice that most of it are not visible to you. Because it's being blocked by the first book. And when you look at the third book's cover it will be even more hidden from your eyes. So think of Layers in Photoshop as a Stack of Books, one layer representing one book or level in the stack.

5.1 Layer that is on top

As you can see from the image above, the blue circle is located on the Top Layer, I have named the Layer as "Circle", and red rectangle is on second layer, I have named this layer as "Rectangle". As we have discussed earlier, book that is on top of the stack will cover the layers below. Thus you see the Circle covering Rectangle. And our background is a white color which is visible from the sides of the circle and rectangle.

5.2 Changing layer positions

Here I have moved Red Rectangle to Top, as you see now Red Rectangle is on top and it covers the Circle. To move the particular layer just click on it with your mouse and while still holding your mouse move it up or down. Or you can click on the Layer that you want to move and use shortcut keys on your keyboard to move it up ( Ctrl+] ) and down ( Ctrl=[ ).

5.3 What is Active Layer

Active layer is the layer which you are working on, for example from the image below we can see that the Active Layer is the Rectangle Layer - active layer will always be highlighted (selected).

Note: And if you want to move particular object you should select it's respective layer first, then only you can move it. Otherwise you will end up moving something else.

The "Eye" icon on the left of the layers means that the layers are currently visible, if you toggle them off then the object will also dissappear (will become invisible) from our window.

As you can see from the screenshot above, I have deselected/removed the eye icon from the layer Rectangle. We still can see the rectangle in the Layers Panel but it is not visible on our image - we can only see the blue circle.

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