This means sorting the layers so that the two layers you want to merge together are on top of one another in the Layers panel. Organize your layers so that they are going to merge correctly. If, for some reason, you have hidden the Layers panel, press the F7 key on your keyboard to show it. Open the Photoshop image containing the layers that you wish to merge. Once you understand this potential downfall, then you are ready to correctly sort your layers for a merge. This means that if you merge a text layer with another layer, you will no longer be able to edit that text with the options on the Character panel. The first thing to understand when you merge layers in Photoshop CS5 is that it cannot be undone, and your merged layers will take on the properties of an image.
How to Combine Layers in Photoshop – Quick Summary You can solve this problem by merging your layers in Photoshop CS5. However, sometimes you want to apply the same effect to a bunch of different elements of your image, and doing so for each individual layer, particularly if you have a lot of layers, can be very tedious. It allows me to make one minor change, such as adding a drop shadow to text, without needing to worry too much about how that will affect other elements of the image. You can even link layers so that they are edited in conjunction with one another. If someone asks me to create something that includes a lot of detail, then going back and making revisions is so much simpler if I only need to adjust one setting on one layer. So we can discuss an issue and we can grumble.The ability to separate different elements of my Photoshop CS5 designs into different layers is one of the things I like most about the program. This forum is almost entirely “staffed” by we volunteers. We can blame (perhaps justifiably) Adobe's programmers for the interface and occasionally get hosed or we can take the precaution to adopt a working practice that avoids the tripwire - and others.Ĭontrary to what some contributors here may hope for, there’s no Adobe hero influencing programming decisions who is reading every forum post to see if anyone’s being harmed by the way the programs work. Resizing or converting to another file type such as CMYK is just one other.
There is plainly an issue (significant tripwire) as described by Dave (especially on Windows) in that saving as pdf seems to subsequently uncheck the layers - even when saving as psd! But that’s not the only reason why making a copy before flattening is a good policy to adopt. There are reasons that method v1 above is better for image reproduction, but irrespective of that, I can’t damage my layered psd. I’m working on a copy and that only took a few seconds to make.
In terms of the wanted archive original master file (with the layers), it doesn’t matter what I do here as I can’t affect my original psd.
size, sharpen and save your file as the desired formatĢ: (definitely a second choice) take the simple route and just 'save as' allowing flattening to happen during the save. Or even close it.ġ: ideally: flatten, resize to suit repro. I recommend you now minimise the original. It’s a really good idea to do that when you need to archive a layered file and also save a flattened version - in this case by saving to a format where layers are not wanted.Īctually this also applies when resizing a "master file" for repro. I know it’s too late for that file and I know this is super frustrating, but I have a suggestion - why not form a new habit so it can never happen again?