Layer Styles in Photoshop

What Photoshop layer styles are and how to use them to perform quick effects on graphic elements in Photoshop.

Photoshop layers have the ability to add graphic styles or effects, such as shadows, glows, embossing, strokes, and so on. with extreme ease. In this .com article, designed for people who are less familiar with the photo retouching program, we will see how to apply layer styles.

In previous articles we had explained what are the , essential to handle the program well, and some of the , which should be read. So, in this same line of work, we are going to continue looking at layer utilities.

What are layer styles

Layer Styles are a utility for applying quick, customizable effects to elements of an image. At the click of a mouse we can achieve some effects typically used in graphic compositions, such as shadows or glows, without having to complicate ourselves with procedures or jobs that require several steps. Also, the nice thing about layer styles is that they are applied dynamically to layers, so if the layer changes, the style dynamically adapts to the new format of the layer.

Before there were layer styles to make a shadow, for example, we had to carry out a series of steps such as making a selection of the visible area of ​​a layer, feathering or fading the selection, painting black on a new layer below of the element to be shaded and finally adjust the desired transparency for the shadow. All these steps are now summarized in a single one that is the shadow layer style. In addition, if at any time the layer on which the style has been applied changes, the shadow will also change automatically, since before the layer styles, we would have to redo all the steps to generate the shadow, each time it changed. the layer to shade.

How to apply a layer style

When we have a layer created, we can access the dialog box to create layer styles by double-clicking on the layer to which the style is to be applied, in the layers window. This will open a window that contains a list of styles, which we can select through some checkboxes and where we can also configure each of these styles.

The layer styles menu can also be accessed by first selecting the layer on which we want to create styles and then activating the desired layer style through the menu “Layer – Layer styles – The name of the layer style to apply or set” .

Note: Layer styles can only be created on layers, in principle layer styles cannot be applied to the special “background” layer.

In the layer styles window, one or several styles can be selected and by clicking with the mouse on each of the different items, a form is accessed where different parameters can be configured for each style. You can see in the following image the layer styles window.

We can do our own tests by creating a layer with any content, painting a selected area or creating a text layer and accessing the layer styles as said. Then I suggest making changes to the layer (painting other areas or writing new text) and we’ll see that the styles adapt to the new content of the layer.

Edit a layer style

Once a layer style has been created, it can be edited at any time, to change the properties of each of the applied styles (for example, to change the transparency of a shadow, or the thickness of a stroke). To do this we can also access it in two ways, through the layers window or through the “layer – Layer styles” menu. The most common is to use the layers window as we will explain now.

In the following image we can see how an arrow appears, on the layer in which we have created the style, in the layers window.

By clicking on the layer arrow, you can see a list of the styles that have been applied to this layer. With a double click on the layer style you can access the layer styles window, directly viewing the style customization form on which you have double-clicked.

copy layer style

Sometimes we need to apply the same layer style to two different layers. We may have applied the style to one layer and then copied it to another. This is done by right-clicking on the layer and selecting the “Copy Layer Style” option.

We can then paste that layer style onto any other layer by right clicking on the layer and selecting “Paste Layer Style”. With this both layers will have the same layer styles.

Layer styles, as we have seen in this Photoshop article published on , are very easy to use and configure according to our needs, to make useful and visually attractive effects without the need for effort or knowledge.