Your top notch design
The Layer Comps palette
Click the icon next to the Trash icon. This is the
New Layer Comp icon. The New Layer Comp
window opens. Check all the checkboxes, and
choose a name for your Comp.
The state of your artwork is stored in the Layer
Comp palette.
Tinker with your artwork
again. Think it’s ok? Brill!
Hit the New Layer
Comp button again to
capture your revised
masterpiece.
Your revised
masterpieces
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As your design progresses, you can capture its
development at any stage with a new Layer Comp.
You can have as many comps as you want.
Clicking on a Layer Comp reveals your artwork at
its different stages, or you can use the left and right
pointing triangles at the bottom of the palette to
easily flick through the comps.
So how is this different from the History Palette
and its History States? Well, Layer Comps are
saved with your artwork file. When you quit
Photoshop and reopen it later, your artwork and its
Layer Comps are still there, allowing you to work
from any of the alternative versions you have
created.
And what’s more, adding a Layer Comp to a file
does not really affect its size.
Each Layer Comp only adds about an extra 1k to
the overall file size!
So you can save all the variations, changes of mind,
and improvements to your design in the same file.
That’s far better than saving an unwieldy batch of
copies of the same file.
Mind you, if you do want a series of separate files
from your variations, Photoshop will handle that in
a nifty way via the Scripts menu. You can access
this menu via the File menu and choosing Scripts,
then Layer Comps to Files...
You then get presented with a control panel that
allows you to export all Layer Comps (or just the
ones you select in the list) in different formats: jpeg,
pdf, tiff and so on.
Choose your file type, set a destination folder, hit
Run, and you’re done! It’s ideal for sending multiple
variants to a client.
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