Photoshop Elements 4 for Windows (Visual Quickstart Guide)

2017-07-07 02:10:07

Photoshop Elements includes many of the same layer management tools found in Adobe Photoshop. As you add layers to an image, Elements assigns them a default numerical name (Layer 1, Layer 2, and so on). As your image becomes more complex, you'll usually find that renaming your layers takes a lot of guesswork out of managing your workflow. If you're adding a sky layer to your vacation photo, it's much easier to find a cloud image on a layer called clouds than it is to remember that the clouds are on Layer 14, for example.

You can also link layers together, so that any changes, such as moving and resizing, happen to two or more layers together.

And you can protect layers from unwanted changes by locking them. All layers can be fully locked, so that no pixels can be changed, or you can lock just the transparent pixels, so that any painting or other editing happens only where there are already opaque (nontransparent) pixels present. This partial locking is useful if you've set up your image with areas that you know you want to preserve as transparent (like for a graphic you want to incorporate into a Web page). And locking an image protects it in other ways, too: you can move a locked layer's stacking position on the Layers palette, but the layer can't be deleted.

To rename a layer

Double-click the layer's name on the Layers palette to display the text cursor and make the name editable (Figure 5.17).

Figure 5.17. To rename a layer, just double-click its name on the Layers palette.

Enter a new name for the layer and press the Enter key.

The new name now appears on the Layers palette.

Tip

If you prefer, you can also use the Rename Layer command available on both the Layer menu and the Layers palette menu.

To link layers

Ctrl-click to select the layers in the Layers palette that you want to link together.

Click the Link icon near the top of the Layers palette (Figure 5.18).

Figure 5.18. Link icons indicate which layers are linked together.

The link icon will appear in each linked layer, to the right of the layer name.

To lock all pixels on a layer

Select the layer on the Layers palette.

Click the Lock All icon near the top of the Layers palette (Figure 5.19).

Figure 5.19. Select a layer and click the Lock All icon to prevent changes to any pixels.

The Lock All icon appears to the right of the layer name on the Layers palette (Figure 5.20).

Figure 5.20. The Lock All icon indicates that the layer's pixels are completely locked.

To lock transparent pixels on a layer

Select the layer on the Layers palette.

Click the Lock Transparent Pixels icon near the top of the Layers palette (Figure 5.21).

Figure 5.21. Select a layer and click the Lock Transparent Pixels icon to prevent changes to any transparent pixels in your image.

The Lock Transparent Pixels icon appears to the right of the layer name on the Layers palette (Figure 5.22).