How To Merge Layers In Photoshop – Complete Guide

In this tutorial we are going to show you what is layer, and how to merge layers in Photoshop.

Layers are an essential part of Photoshop as you edit images, allowing you to keep different parts of your canvas, such as text or shapes, separate. Sometimes it may be necessary to merge layers when editing. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to do that.

Managing layers and groups helps organize changes. You can rename and color layers to easily find similar layers, delete and export layers if needed.

If you can’t find the Layers panel in the menu on the right side of the Photoshop window, you may need to fix it. You can make the “Layers” panel visible by clicking Window -> Layer or just press F7 on the keyboard.

Merge layers in Photoshop

There are a few ways to merge layers in Photoshop, but the easiest is to merge multiple layers. The process is to take your selected layers and combine them – any changes made to the selected layer will affect all merged layers.

To merge selected layers in Photoshop, you must select the layers you want to merge in the Layers panel on the right while holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard to select more than one layer at a time.

After selecting the layers, right-click on one of the selected layers and press “Merge Layers” or “Merge Shape” depending on the type of layers.

Right-click the selected layers and click Merge Shapes or Merge Layers to merge them in Photoshop

You can also do this by pressing (CTRL+E or CMD+E) on your keyboard.

This method may not be visible for some layers (like text boxes) when right-clicking. Instead, you need to click the Layer panel options menu in the top right corner.

Tap the Layers Panel Options menu button in the top right corner to access the layer blending options

Then, click “Merge Layers” or “Merge Shape” to merge the selected layers.

Photoshop allows you to hide certain layers in the preview. This can be achieved by tapping the eye icon next to a layer in the Layers panel on the right side of the Photoshop window.

Hidden layers will be visible as a black box icon, while visible layers are shown with an eye symbol. If you have some hidden layers, you can merge all visible layers.

To do this, hide the layers you want to leave untouched, right-click on one of the visible layers (or (click the Layers Panel Option button in the top right corner) and click the “Merge Visible” option. Or by Right-clicking on a layer and pressing “Merge Visible” to merge all visible layers in Photoshop

You can as well press Shift + Ctrl + E on your keyboard to quickly merge this type of layer.

Flattening All Layers in Photoshop

Some certain image file types allow you to use layers. Files in PSD format support layers, but not other image types such as JPG or PNG.

Using layers makes editing your image easier, but you can merge all the layers if you want. Photoshop will do this automatically if you save the image as a PNG or JPG, but this can be achieved manually if you want.

To achieve this, ensure that the Layers panel is visible you can press F7 or click Windows then Layers. Also ensure all hidden layers are visible, otherwise they will be skipped and deleted.

To show hidden layers, click the hollow square icon next to the layer in the Layers panel.

If your layers are visible, right-click on the Layers panel or click the Layer panel options button in the upper right corner of the window.

Then, click on the “Flat Image” option.

Right-click on a layer and click Flatten Image to merge all layers in Photoshop

If there are hidden layers, it may need you to confirm if you want to delete them or not. Click “OK” or “Cancel” to abort the process.

If you have hidden layers when you try to flatten an image in Photoshop, press OK to confirm or Cancel to stop the process

If you choose “OK” or have all of your layers visible before you begin, your layers will be merged and you will no longer be able to move or edit individual objects.

To undo, hit Ctrl+Z on your keyboard right after merging the layers or press Edit and then undo.

RELATED: How to blur an image in Photoshop

Conclusion

With all the above mentioned I hope you have been able to Merge layers in Photoshop, if this helps, see you next time! Please try to support vdtips by sharing this post thanks.