Copying & Transforming Layers
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
The move tool, as you
would expect, is used when you need to move the contents of a layer, but it is
also used for selecting layers and copying layers. As with all the tools we've
been learning about, there are a few key combinations that modify the behavior
of the Move tool:
- Holding down the
Shift key with the move tool constrains your movements to straight lines
or 45 degree angles.
- Holding down the
key creates a copy of the layer and moves it at the same time.
- You can combine these
modifier keys to copy the layer and constrain movements at the same time.
You can also manipulate
the contents of a layer with the Free Transform command. This command works just
like it does for selections, so
section if your memory needs refreshing. When you are in free transform
mode, a bounding box appears around the layer contents and you can move, scale,
rotate, skew, distort, and flip the layer contents by using the mouse and
keyboard combinations. When layers are linked, your transformations will be
applied to all linked layers, although only the active layer will have the
bounding box around it in Photoshop 5.x. Transformations can also be applied
numerically using the Edit > Transform submenu. Please take some time to
experiment with layer transformations on your own.
In Photoshop 5.x, if you
double click on the move tool's toolbox button, the option palette will display
the move tool options. The Pixel Doubling option doubles the size of the
pixels in the preview window only when the move tool is being used. This results
in faster drawing of the screen. Unless you find the move tool noticeably slow,
you should not need to use this option. The Auto Select Layer option
allows you to change active layers by clicking in the document with the move
tool rather than going to the layers palette. Some people find this convenient,
and others find it a nuisance, I suggest you experiment with it to find out your
for Version 6.0
Photoshop 6.0, the move tool options appear on the options bar. The
pixel doubling option from Photoshop 5.x was removed, but the Auto
Select Layer option is still available. In addition, there is an option
to show a bounding box on the active layer. This makes the auto select
option much more useful, because you can see exactly which layer is
active, even if your layers palette is hidden. It also makes it very
easy to switch into free transform mode, just by moving the cursor to
one of the handles and invoking a transformation. When you switch into
free transform mode, you'll notice the bounding box turns from a dotted
line to solid, and your options bar offers input fields for applying
numeric transformations. To apply transformations and exit free
transform mode, double click inside the bounding box, press Enter on
your numeric keypad, or press the check mark on the options bar. To exit
free transform mode without applying transformations, press Esc on the
keyboard or the X on the options bar.
Photoshop 6, you'll also notice some additional buttons on the options
bar for the move tool. These will be grayed out unless you have 2 more
more layers linked. These buttons allow you to align and distribute
linked layers and they work just like the Align and Distribute Layer
menu commands in Photoshop 5 which are discussed later.
If the move tool is active
and you right/control
click in a layer, you will get a pop-up menu that allows you to choose from a
menu of all layers that have pixels under the point where your cursor was
clicked. Experiment with this shortcut on the
sample file from the last lesson by right/control
clicking various areas in the document. Of course, this is only useful if you've
named your layers logically, so it's a good idea to get in the habit of naming
Here's some additional
layer selection shortcuts:
Alt right click/Control
Option click selects the top-most layer under the cursor
and hitting the left and right [bracket] keys allows you to cycle through
the layers. The left bracket key [ moves down through the layers, and
the right bracket key ] moves up.
selects the bottom layer.
selects the top layer.
These commands are also
available from the Layer > Arrange submenu.
The move tool can also be
used to copy layers from one document to another by dragging and dropping.
Simply dragging one layer from one document to another will copy that layer into
the other document in the position where you release the mouse button. To copy a
layer to another document and have it centered, hold down the Shift key
as you drag and drop. This works at all times, with one exception: if the two
documents have the exact same dimensions, holding the shift key while dragging
the layer will put the copied layer in the exact same position that it was in in
the document you're dragging it from.
This brings me to a nifty
tip that actually has nothing to do with layers or the move tool. If you are in
the new document dialog box and you want your new document to be the same
dimensions as another document that is currently open, you can go to the window
menu and choose the open document and the numbers in the new document dialog
will adjust themselves automatically! This handy little trick works in the image
size and canvas size dialog boxes too. Try it out!
now, back to layers and the
move tool... you can also copy layers between documents by dragging and dropping
them from the layers palette onto another document window. However, if you want
to copy several layers at the same time, you must link the layers and then drag
and drop them from one document window to another using the move tool. You
cannot drag & drop linked layers from the layers palette.
for Version 6.0
| Photoshop 6.0 has a new feature called layer sets. With layer sets you
can group several layers into a set to reduce clutter in the layer
palettes and manipulate several layers at once. It's similar to layer
linking, but much more powerful because you can have multiple layer
sets. Layer sets are beyond the scope of this course, but you can learn
more about them beginning on page 213 of your User Guide, or from the
online Help file.
That's just one of the
situations when you may want to link layers. Other times you will need to link
layers are when you want to merge several layers together. This is done through
the Merge Linked command on the Layers menu. The keyboard shortcut to merge
linked layers is Ctrl/Command
You will also want to link
layers when you need to align and distribute them. This allows you to adjust the
position of layers in relation to other layers. To learn more about the Layer
Align and Distribute commands, see
overview on Layer Alignment. The overview was written for Photoshop 5.5, but
it applies versions 5.0 and 6.0 just the same. The only difference in Photoshop
6.0 is that they can be accessed much more easily via the buttons on the options
bar instead of navigating through submenus of the Layer menu.