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Functions related to layers are located in the Layers panel and Layer bar.
The Layers panel displays a list of layers. The active layer is highlighted. Its parameters are displayed below the list.
To open or close the Layers panel, choose Window > Show/Hide Layers Panel (Cmd-L).
1 – List of layers.
2 – Lock or unlock layer. Locking layers prevents them from movement and modification.
3 – Display or hide the layer content.
4 – Remove Layer and Add Layer buttons.
5 – Opacity of the layer content.
6 – Blend mode selector. See Blending Layers for more details.
7 – Position of the selected object in the document. The zero point is the bottom left corner.
8 – Size of the selected object. You can also resize the object using the resize handles.
9 – Rotate the layer content.
10 – Flip the layer content.
You can change parameters of several selected layers together. To select several layers, click on their names holding the Cmd or Shift button.
To change the layer name in the list, double-click on it.
The order of layer names in the list reflects the layer stacking order. It determines how objects overlap one another. The layer located at the top of the list is atop others. The layer at the bottom of the list is behind all other layers.
To change the stacking order, drag the layer name to a new position in the list.
Click the "plus" button to add a new layer.
To create a copy of an existing layer, use the Duplicate function in the Layer bar.
Click the "minus" button to remove the active layer.
The Layer bar is located at the bottom of the main window and displays icons of layers. When a layer is selected, its icon becomes highlighted. Several layers can be selected to modify them together.
To change the layer stacking order, drag an icon to the left or right. The rightmost icon corresponds to the top layer.
Compare the two pictures below:
The star is over other shapes in the left picture. Its icon is taking the right position in the Layer bar. Moving the icon to the left (see the right picture), you move the star behind other objects on the canvas.
To change text or image in the active layer, open the Layer Content window by double-clicking the layer icon.
To choose a graphic file for the active layer, you can also drag it from the Finder application and drop onto the layer icon in the Layer bar.
1 – Add a new layer with the default content.
2 – Delete layer and its content.
3 and 8 – Scroll layer icons.
4 – Click the “i” icon to open the Layer Content window.
5, 6 and 7 – Icons of layers displaying the layer content.
9 – Layer actions menu that includes the following functions: