Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

You can apply a whole group of existing layer styles to a new layer in one easy operation

Layer styles are a powerful way of enhancing your designs. You can add multiple layer styles to a single layer, and build these up to create the effect you’re after. Each style has its own values and settings, but re-typing the same values and settings to apply these styles to other layers can take up a lot of time.

1 - We’ll add some layer styles to a layer, then look at a faster way to apply these multiple styles to a new layer. Open the file Train.tif. Type in some text (we’ll edit the colour later using another layer style). Click the Add a layer style button at the foot of the Layers palette and select Drop Shadow. Increase the default value of the shadow’s opacity to 89% to make the text stand out.

2 - Set new foreground and background colours by using the Eyedropper Tool to sample a red and a yellow from the image. Use the palette menu shortcut to add a gradient overlay to the layer. To edit the gradient, click the Greyscale Gradient bar in the Layer Styles dialog to open the Gradient Preset window. Choose the Foreground to Background preset and click OK.

3 - Add as many layer styles to the text as required. Then create a new layer and select the Custom Shape Tool [U]. Choose a symbol from the Custom Shape Picker and draw it on the new layer. To give the symbol the same layer style settings as you applied to the text layer drag the Effects label from the text layer and place it underneath the symbol layer.