What Happens When Layers Are Merged?
Both the Merge Layers and flatten photoshop layers options cause Photoshop to combine certain layers, whether that is all of them or just a certain selection of them. But what does this mean?
Well, combining layers results in certain consequences which can be either advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on your situation.
First of all, let’s demonstrate what actually happens when you combine layers by looking at the changes that occur in the Layers Window.
Here, we have opened a document that contains three circles on separate layers. Before merging these layers, here is what the Layers Window looks like.
As you can see, each circle is on a separate layer. By having each element occupying its own individual layer, we can access certain capabilities that we would not be able to access if the elements were to all be on the same layer.
For instance, with the circles on separate layers, we can move each circle individually, in different directions and by different distances, whereas if we were to have them all on the same layer, we would only be able to move them all in one direction and by the same distance, since they would all have to be moved as a single body.
When the elements are on their own layers, we can also apply edits such as color adjustments, transformative edits (such as rotations, flips, and size changes), and blend modes to individual circles. For example, we could make one circle brighter and smaller, another one bigger and darker, and the other one wider and flipped horizontally.
By contrast, if the circles were to all occupy the same single layer, then we would only be able to make the same edits to all the circles. Decreasing the size of the layer would make all the circles smaller, making the layer brighter would increase the brightness of al the circles, and flipping the layer vertically would mean that the top circle would become the bottom one and the bottom circle would become the top one since the entire layer as a whole is flipped.
Let’s take a look at what happens in the Layers Window when we combine all our layers by merging them. As you can see, what had previously existed on individual layers now exists on a single layer, and instead of having three layers, we now only have one.
This means that we lose the advantages of being able to make different edits to individual elements independently.
You might now be thinking: what is the benefit of combining layers? Why would we do it when it prevents us from making so many edits to the document? Well, whilst there are certainly plenty of disadvantages that come when we combine layers, there are also a few advantages.
Combining layers can be highly beneficial when you actually want to make collective edits to layers that you wouldn’t be able to make by just selecting all the layers or grouping them.
Also, if you are certain that you won’t need to make individual edits to certain layers anymore, there you can, by all means, merge them, without losing out on anything since you have made all the individual edits already.
Merging layers or flattening the image can also be especially useful when it comes to situations in which your file is too large. As we will cover later, combining layers can be a great way to significantly reduce the file size of your document.
Likewise, combining the layers can be useful when you have an exceedingly large number of layers in your document and you want to, and can afford to, combine some of them to reduce the number and make the Layers Window more organised.
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