Product Overview Painter Masters Education and Training Community Goodies Partners Press		Tips and Tutorials Books, CDs and DVDs Schools and Workshops

	Tips Viewing and Merging Layers Viewing Layers You can control your view of an image in the document window by changing layer visibility settings. This is helpful in both compositing an image and applying effects. You can hide one layer to gain better visibility of the layer below it. Or, you can set up different states of an image to create rollover effects for use on the Web. Use layer visibility settings to create different states of an image: In the first example, the layers containing the background are hidden; in the second example, the layers containing the background are visible. Layer visibility settings stay active when you print or save documents to certain file formats. In other words, the content of hidden layers does not print and is not saved. However, saving a document in RIF or PSD format preserves hidden layers as part of the document. To show or hide a layer or the canvas On the Layers palette, click the eye icon next to the layer name or the canvas. When the eye is shut, the layer is hidden in the document window. When the eye is open, the layer is visible in the document window. You can show or hide multiple layers at the same time by dragging over eye icons in the Layers palette. The state of the first eye icon you drag over determines what will happen with subsequent layers. For example, if you first drag over a layer that is hidden, and then drag over some layers that are visible and some that are hidden, all layers you drag over become visible. Merging Layers with the Canvas Dropping a layer or group merges its contents with the canvas. Once you drop a layer, you can no longer access the layer's content separately from the canvas. You can drop specific layers or you can drop all layers at once. When you drop a layer, you can choose to create a selection based on the layer contents. If the layer has a layer mask, the mask is used to make the selection. To drop a layer To Do the following Drop specific layers On the Layers palette, select the layers (or groups) that you want to drop, and do one of the following: Click the Layer Commands button , and choose Drop. Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Drop. Drop all layers On the Layers palette, click the palette menu arrow, and choose Drop All. Make a selection by dropping a layer On the Layers palette, click the palette menu arrow, and choose Drop and Select.