Epson Photo Plus - PhotoPlus Color Photo Scanner User's Guide download pdf (Page 28)

22 Layers, Masks, and Blending

Selections and layers

With few exceptions, you will work on just one layer at any given time—click a

layer on the Layers tab to activate and work on that layer. Tools and commands

generally affect the entire active layer. However, if there's a selection in place,

tools and commands are limited to the pixels inside the selection.

Selections are independent from layers. They don't actually include image

content—they just describe a region with boundaries. Therefore, if your image

has multiple layers and you switch to another layer, the selection stays in place

and follows you to the new active layer.

Operations involving layers

Many standard operations, such as painting, selecting and moving, Clipboard

actions, adjusting colors, applying effects, and so on, are possible on both the

Background layer and standard layers.

Others, such as rearranging the order of layers in the stack, setting up different

color interactions (blend modes and blend ranges) between layers, varying layer

opacity (transparency), applying 2D layer effects and 3D layer effects, using

depth maps, creating animation frames, or masking, only work with standard

layers.

Once an image has more than just a background layer, the layer information can

only be preserved by saving the image in the native PhotoPlus (.spp) format.

Multiple layers are merged when you export an image to a standard "flat" bitmap

format (e.g., .png). It’s best to save your work-in-progress as SPP files, and only

export to a different file format as the final step. (See Saving a file and Exporting

to another file format on p. 15 and 164, respectively.)

Some standard operations can be applied to all layers simultaneously by

checking the Use All Layers option from the context toolbar.

To carry out basic layer operations:

• To select a layer, click on its name in the Layers tab. The selected layer

is now the active layer. Note that each layer’s entry includes a preview

thumbnail, which is visible at all times and is especially useful when

identifying layer contents.

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Epson Photo Plus - PhotoPlus Color Photo Scanner User's Guide Page 28