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4. The Screen Setup of PhotoLine

## 4.7 The Layer List

The Layer List is the center of editing large documents with many layers. It lists all layers in a document and allows to edit, copy or delete them.

Layers are always drawn from the bottom to the top. This means, layers in the background are displayed at the bottom of the layers dialog.

You can change the order of the layers by simply dragging a layer to a new position.

You can open groups by clicking on the arrow next to the thumbnail. Alt+click will open all subgroups as well.

The most important layer functions of the Layer menu are accessible through the context menu of the Layer List.

By default PhotoLine always selects the active layer in the Layer List. For complex documents with many groups that may be undesirable. Therefore, you can turn off this behavior via the window menu of the Layer List with the command Show Active Layer. A new call of this command shows the active layer again.

After selecting a layer or any other action, the layer list automatically activates the document. This prevents keyboard control, but if you prefer to have one, you can activate it in the preferences (chapter 7.10.1.17).

Common Options

Layer Intensity modifies the transparency of a layer.

The combo box Blend Mode controls, how a layer is combined with its background. There are various modes available therefore, you should try their effect with several examples in order to get used to them. In the options you can define a shortcut for switching to the next or previous blend mode (see chapter 7.10.1.38 "Usage > Keyboard Layout").

If Protect Underlying Transparency is activated, the active layer will not modify the transparency built-up by the preceding layers. An example illustrates this:

Lock transparency can only be selected, if the active layer is an image and has an alpha channel (see chapter 2.3.2, creation of an alpha channel see chapter 4.11). If the switch is selected, the alpha channel will be protected and can not be modified by image operations like painting or like filters.

Layer Not Selectable defines, that the layer tool (see chapter 6.2.1) cannot select the layer. This ensures that you don’t select a layer by mistake. Layer Not Movable prohibits, that a layer can be moved. A perfectly placed layer is safe from being moved by mistake with this option. Last but not least, Protect Content avoids accidentally modifying the content of a layer.

Layer Visibility

If you deactivate Show Layer, the layer becomes invisible. Click+drag can show or hide following/previous layers.

Clicking while holding the Alt-key has a special meaning. If other layers are visible, they will become invisible, so that the layer you clicked on will be the only visible layer. If it was already the only visible layer, all other layers will become visible, too.

Show Layer has a second meaning, too: if it is clicked while holding Shift, the layer will be made a clipping layer (see chapter 2.7). This state is indicated by a pair of small scissors. Additionally the icon indicates whether a layer is a layer mask (see chapter 2.8). A layer can only be a layer mask, if it has a parent layer. The layer mask state can be modified by clicking while holding the Ctrl-key (Window) or Command-key (macOS).

The context menu of Show Layer offers quick access to all these options, too. Additionally you can select a color for marking the layer in the Layer List.

Layer Selection

For several functions such as grouping (see chapter 2.3.5) and aligning layers, several layers must be selected. In each layer selection, there is always one layer that is the active layer.

The active layer is displayed in the layer list with the normal selection color. If you select additional layers, they will be highlighted in a lighter color.

You can add more layers in two ways :

- Clicking while holding Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) changes the selection of the clicked layer.
- Clicking while holding Shift selects all layers between the active layer and the clicked layer.

If you want to change the active layer of a selection, you have to click on this layer in the layer list while pressing the Alt key.

Optionally, you can also show a layer marker in the Layer List window menu. This shows as a check mark whether a layer is selected. Here you can also switch off that all selected layers are displayed in the selection color by deactivating Mark All Selected Layers.

The Thumbnail

The little image shows the layer in order to ease recognition. The size of this thumbnail can be adjusted by using the menu of the title bar.

By clicking on the thumbnail while holding Shift, you will create a mask based on the brightness of the layer.

If you click while holding Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) the mask will be created based on the transparency of the layer. Holding additionally Shift will add to current mask, Alt will remove.

With image layers Alt+double click turns transparency on/off.

If a layer is an adjustment layer, clicking while holding Shift turns off the effect of the adjustment mask. Alt+click displays the mask as gray image allowing better editing.

With adjustment layers there is an additional small icon for the assigned adjustments next to the thumbnail. Double-clicking the icon allows to change the settings of the adjustment layer, and its context menu can be used to copy and paste adjustments.

The Layer Name

You are able to change the name of a layer by single clicking the name of the active layer.

If a layer is completely outside of the document area, its name is displayed red.

Under the layer name is the layer type. If the blend mode is not Normal or the layer intensity is not 100%, this will be shown there, too.

The Find Function

You can optionally filter the layers visible in the Layer List. In order to do so you must activate Find in the window menu of the Layer List.

There are three modes. The simplest one is Type. Here, you choose the layer types you want to see from a list of symbols. The second mode is Virtual Copy. This shows only the virtual copies (chapter 2.3.6) of a layer. By clicking Apply, the active layer is set as the original layer whose virtual copies will be searched.

Command is more powerful. Text commands are used to control, which layers are shown in the Layer List. There is no distinction between lower and uppercase. If a command or a search term contains a space, you must enclose it in quotation marks. Commands can be abbreviated as long as they are unambiguous.

There are 3 basic types of commands:

- the layer name
You can just enter the part of a layer name and PhotoLine will show all layers containing this part. If you enter an "e", all layers will be shown whose names contain an "e".
- the layer type
By prepending an "&" you can filter for layer types. "&image" will show only image layers. There are the following layer types: "image", "vector", "text", "group", "virtual" for virtual copies, "placeholder", "pathgroup" and "meshgradient".
- attribute comparisons
Attribute comparisons are always start with an "&". It follows the name of the attribute, a comparision operator and at last the comparison value. An attribute comparison may look like this: "&blendmode=normal" which can be shortend to "&blend=norm". Some attributes just allow the comparison operators "=" (equality) and "!=" (inequality). Others additionally support ">", ">=", "<" and "<=".

At the moment there are the following attribute comparisons:

- the blend mode: "blendmode"
You can test the blend mode for equality and inequality. There are the following modes: "normal", "dissolve", "darken", "multiply", "colorburn", "linearburn", "darkercolor", "lighten", "screen", "colordodge", "lineardodge", "lightercolor", "overlay", "softlight", "hardlight", "vividlight", "linearlight", "pinlight", "hardmix", "difference", "exclusion", "subtract", "divide", "remove", "hue", "saturation", "color", "luminance".
- the layer intensity: "intensity"
You can test the layer intensity with "&intensity=value". Value is a number defining the intensity in percent.
- the line width: "linewidth"
The line width is tested with "&linewidth=value". Value can be a number giving the line width in pixels, or it can be a value including an unit in quotation marks, e.g. "&linewidth<"1 pt"".
- the line color: "linecolor"
The line color is tested with "&linecolor=color". "color" is the color to be compared with. This color can be prefixed with "RGB", "GRAY" or "CMYK" to specify the color model of the comparison color. This is followed by the color values, which are specified as hexadecimal numbers, as in HTML. "RGBff0000" is therefore, an RGB red, "RGBff000080" is an RGB red with 50% transparency.
If no color model is specified, PhotoLine guesses the color model from the number of given color components.
- the fill color: "fillcolor"
The fill color is tested with "&fillcolor=color". "color" is set up in the same way as for "linecolor".
- test for ICC profile: "ICC"
"&ICC" is used to check whether a layer has an ICC profile.
- fonts: "font"
With "&font=name" you can search for all text layers that contain the font "name". The case does not matter and the font name does not have to be complete.
So if you search for "&font=ar", all text layers would be found in which the fonts "Arial" or "Argentum" are used.

You can invert the effect of a command by prepending a "-", so "-&vector" will show all layers that are not vector.

Furthermore you can link several commands:

- By simply putting one command after the other, it will be sufficient to fulfill one of the commands in order to show a layer, e.g. "&image &vector" will show all layers that are either image or vector.
- By linking two commands with a "+" all commands have to be true in order to show a layer, "&vector + &blend=multiply" will show all vector layers whose blend mode is multiply.
- You can use "(" and ")" to bracket related commands. "&image (&vec + &blend=mul)" will show all layers that are either images or vectors with the blend mode multiply.