Layer styles can be extremely useful for such things as drop shadows and strokes. Did you know that you can share these styles with other layers? Let me give you three tips. If you want to move a layer style from one layer to another, in the Layers panel, drag the word “Effects” from the layer you want to move it from and drop it on the layer where you want to apply it. That style will now appear on the new layer instead.
If you want the layer style to stay on the current layer and also appear on a different layer, you can copy it by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and dragging-and-dropping it on the new layer. The style will now appear on both layers.
If you have several layers and you want the same style to apply to all of them, do this: Select all the layers in the Layers panel and Press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to group them together. Now, select the group and apply the layer style. The style will apply to the group and ripple through to all the layers inside it. This saves time if you need to adjust the style. The only caveat to this last suggestion is that, if you have overlapping elements, they’ll be treated as a single object and you may see different results with certain effects. This could actually be a helpful feature for certain types of work.
This tip originally published in Colin Smith’s “Photoshop Tips” column in the February, 2023 issue of Photoshop User magazine.
