Saving Layers

[Sheep]

Have at last got around to starting to play with layers in elements and created a layer to add my signature and © to my pictures and playing with how discrete I can make it.

The question is that having created that layer for one picture I cant easily find (having looked in the help box and searched for threads on here) a way of saving that layer for subsequent pictures without duplicating it and adding to every picture by dealing with them all at the same time, rather than as and when.

Must be missing something here surely is there not a way of saving the layer for later?

 

[Lufbrarunner]

For a signature/copyright notice such as this, you could record the steps as an action and then use that action on subsequent images.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Or put the signature/copyright notice text on a transparent background save (as .PSD), and then drag and drop this onto the subsequent images.

 

[Lady Pitstop]

Not sure whether it's the same in elements but in Paint Shop Pro I made a © sig as a Picture Tube Tool and just add it in a separate layer and just resize and adjust the opacity to the required amount, but just saving the sig in a transparent layer as namllihs said would do the job

 

[Sheep]

Thanks for the above comments guys. Ok but can i create a (signature) layer to save on its own as a .PSD without a picture open too as i tried that and it didnt seem to like it in that it wouldnt appear to let me create such a layer?

 

[surrealillusions]

yeah..create a transparent background layer, with the text in a different layer. 2 layered psd file that you can save, and it will be relatively small too.

What i do, is to load all the photos i need to add a copyright logo to (or some of them if its millions of them). Copy/paste the copyright logo later into each photo.

This is time consuming, especially with zillions of photos..but it does give you the freedom of where to put the logo and adjust colours/brightness etc on each photo.

hope that helps

 

[Sheep]

Thanks Surrealillusions but can i create a "transparent background layer" without a pic open?

 

[Lufbrarunner]

If you go File > New In the box that comes up choose the size of image you want and in background contents choose Transparent.
Click on the text tool add and format your text and save as a .PSD file
Open the image you want to work on and the file with the signature also.
Use the move tool to drag the signature over to the target image place it where you want alter opacity if required.
Merge the layers and save to your favourite file type.

 

[surrealillusions]

Sure you can

File - New

Then select what size etc you want..press ok..and theres your new canvas

All you need to do now is, create a new layer (shift+ctrl+n), then delete the original background. By right clicknig on it ni the layers pallette, and go to "delete layer"



edit - Or namllihs's instructions. Best to not merge layers though if you want to save it as a psd file and want to change the copyright logo in the future!

 

[Sheep]

Thanks guys I will give these answers a whirl I was trying to create a new layer after opening the software and everything was greyed out...doh

Cheers

 

[Lufbrarunner]

edit - Or namllihs's instructions. Best to not merge layers though if you want to save it as a psd file and want to change the copyright logo in the future!

I usualy keep an unmerged .PSD and then merge a copy as a .JPG