Photoshop Layer Styles

Basics	Enhancing Images	Blending Images	Special Effects	Drawing Tools

Interface	Color Balance	Selection Tools	Filters	Color Selection
Toolbox	Brightness/Contrast	Transform	Layer Styles	Type Tool
Palettes	Hue/Saturation		Opacity	Paint Tools
Layers	Cropping			Vector Shapes
File Types	Cloning Stamp			Gradients
Resolution/Size	Blur/Sharpen/Smudge
	Burn/Dodge/Sponge

What are layer styles?

Layer styles are special effects that can be applied to an entire layer overall. Layer styles include a variety of lighting effects, textures and overlays. To give you a better idea of what a style is, here is an original graphic, and then the same graphic with some various styles applied:

Original Graphic
(note that the computer
and grey background are
two different layers)

Outer Shadow	Inner Shadow
Inner Bevel	Pillow Emboss
Outer Glow	Inner Glow
Stroke	Color Overlay

How do I use layer styles?

To see the layer styles available to you, either pull down the Layer menu and select Layer Style, or click the small button located at the bottom of the Layers palette. In either case, you will be presented with a menu. Selecting a style will apply it to whichever layer is currently selected.

After you have made your selection, the Layer Style dialog box will appear:

This dialog lets you modify specific settings, or characteristics, for the selected style. The options available in the dialog box vary depending up on which style was chosen.

Once the Layer Style dialog box is open, you can add additional styles to the same layer by checking them on the left.

To make changes to the default settings for a style, click the style name on the left and the settings for that style will appear on the right. You can then make modifications as you wish. Click OK when you are finished.

Looking at the Layers palette, you can now see that the selected styles appear attached to the layer they affect:

If you want to make changes to the style later, just double click its name in the Layers palette and the Layers Style dialog box will appear.

Tip: Remember that layer styles affect an entire layer. If you have a part of an image that you want to set off from the rest by using a layer style, you must separate that part and put it on its own layer. Here’s what happens when we apply a drop shadow and inner bevel to a “flat” image, and to an image on a separate layer:
computer and background on one layer	computer on separate layer

Some examples

Click on a style to the left to see the options available for each style, and to see an example of the selected layer style when applied to a text layer.

The final example below shows how you can combine layer styles on a single layer to create a unique effect. The text layer below has the Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Stroke, and Bevel and Emboss styles applied:

It is impossible to describe all of the different features and combinations of layer styles. At this point you should practice applying some yourself! Don’t forget to try some of the special settings for each style. Experimenting is the best way to begin to really understand the possibilities of layer styles.