An Extensive Guide to Photoshop Layer Styles

If you've ever used Photoshop for any serious project, you've probably used at least one layer style. Getting to know what each style does and what the available options are can be a daunting task. This tutorial will go though every layer style found in a default installation of Adobe Photoshop CS3, show what it does to your image, and describe some available options.

Even if you haven't used layer styles before, this tutorial should be a great resource. Adding a style to a layer is a quick and easy to way to get very nice effects like shadows and bevels. I'm not going to describe all available options for every layer style, instead I'm going to stick to the ones I most commonly use and which I think are the most important.

Let's start with a really quick overview of how to add styles to your layers. The easiest way is through the Layers main menu.

When one of those menu items is selected, the layer style editor will be opened for choosing the various options available for your selection. This editor will be explained in great depth in the following sections.
All right, let's dive right into some styles. For each style I've provided an example image so you can easily see the expected output for each one. Here's the original image without any styles added.

1. Drop Shadow

The name should pretty much give away the purpose of this style - it adds a drop shadow to your layer. In my experience this is a pretty commonly used style. It's a quick way to give your art some dimension and depth.

When I'm using a drop shadow, I only modify the Opacity, Angle, Distance, Spread, and Size - so those are the options I'll describe here.

Opacity

In real life, shadows rarely completely black out what they're being cast on, so this option lets some of the underlying layers show through. Usually I'm content with the default value of 75. Higher values will reduce how "see through" the shadow is and lower values will increase it.

Angle

Angle lets you control the direction the light is coming from. The "Use Global Light" option lets you specify whether or not you want to use the same light as everything else, or set one specifically for this object. Remember, if you change the angle while this is checked, the shadows on everything that uses the global light will be changed.

Distance

This option controls how far away the shadow will be from the object casting it. Higher values push the shadow farther away.

Spread

The spread controls how intense the shadow looks. With the default value the shadow has a soft edge, but if this were increased, the edge would become harder - as if a much brighter light was being shown on the object.

Size

This simply controls how large the shadow is. A larger value corresponds to a larger shadow.

2. InnerShadow

An inner shadow is basically the same thing as a drop shadow, except the shadow is cast using the negative space of your layer. Another way to think about it would be that the text "ABCD" has been cut out of a white piece of paper and the shadow you're seeing is being cast on the surface underneath the paper. The options for an inner shadow do the exact same things as a drop shadow.

3. Outer Glow

The outer glow is a neat style that can give your object the appearance of glowing.

For some reason the default Blend Mode was set to Screen, so the first thing I did was change it to normal - because I just wanted to make my object glow using the specified color. Below are some other options I commonly use.

Opacity

Just like with a drop shadow, this will set how visible layers underneath this layer are. Higher values will make the glow less see-through.

Noise

This options adds what I like to call "speckle" to your glow. I've never had a use for it, but I'm sure someone out there has or the option wouldn't exist.

Technique

The technique changes the look of the glow. I can't actually explain why "Softer" means softer and what exactly is precise about "Precise", so you'll just have to play with these to get the look that works best for you.

Spread

Spread works exactly like it does with a drop shadow. Higher values will make the edges harder where lower values make the edges soft.

Size

This controls how large the glow will be.

4. Inner Glow

An inner glow is basically an outer glow applied to the negative space of the layer. Just like with inner shadow, the options for inner glow are the same as outer glow, except spread is referred to as choke.

5. Bevel and Emboss

This is probably by far the most commonly used layer style for my projects. This style is great for quickly making buttons. Simply draw a rectangle and apply this style and you've got yourself a pretty convincing button in no time.

Style

This changes how the bevel is applied. I don't think I've ever changed it and I don't particularly like any of the other options. You'll just have to play with it and see what works for your projects.

Technique

I like this option. This lets you change the look of the bevel from a smooth edge to a chiseled edge.

Depth

This option will change how 'deep' your bevel appears.

Direction

I've never actually changed this, but this sets the direction of your bevel. Setting it to 'Down' will push your bevel into the canvas. As far as I can tell, you can get the exact same look by reversing your light direction.

Size

This is how big your bevel is. It's a useful option that I often tweak.

Soften

Increasing this will increase how soft your bevel looks.

6. Satin

Satin is a neat effect, but I've never found a need for it during an actual project. That being said, I'm not going to go into much detail for its options.

The options I changed to make the example image were blend mode and the color. I set the blend mode to Normal and the color to white.

7. Color Overlay

This style is one I use every once and while. It takes your selected color and puts it on top of your layer. The only two options I use here are the color and the opacity. For this example, I set the color to red and the opacity to 60%.

8. Gradient Overlay

This is just like Color Overlay, but instead of a solid color, it will overlay a gradient on your layer.

9. Pattern Overlay

This style simply overlays a pattern on your layer. It's very similar to the color overlay and the gradient overlay.

10. Stroke

This style will outline your layer with a line. The line can be a solid color, gradient, or pattern.

Size

This is the width, in pixels, of your line. The example image is set to 3 pixels.

Position

Setting this changes were the line will be positioned. Outside draws the line on the outside of the image - making it 3 pixels bigger on all sides. Inside draws the line on the inside of your layer - keeping your image the same size. Center draws half of the line on the outside and half on the inside. I usually use the Outside option.

Fill Type

This is where you can set the style of the line - solid color, gradient, or pattern. When you change this you'll be presented with options specific to your selection. The example image uses a Color line set to black.

Hopefully this post gives you a pretty good overview of the layer styles available in Adobe Photoshop. If you've missed these or haven't used them yet, I highly recommend trying them out in your next project.