I have a collection of shape layers that I'm dividing into four groups, to apply a different layer style to each group. I've read in the online Photoshop User Guide and in a third-party tutorial that layer styles can be applied to a group. However, nowhere can I find an explanation for how to do this.
I tried selecting the name of the group and applying the layer style to it. But it has no effect on the shape layers below it. I've applied the same layer style to individual shape layers, and it works fine, so there's nothing wrong with the layer style.
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Works for me.
I do not see anything in the preview of your layer. What did your art look like before you applied the effects? Mine looks like this if I hide he effects
I been filling the shapes with a combination of effects. There are four combinations, which I’ve named, TEXT(for Texture) A, B, C, and D.
As you can see in the image above, I’ve been filling the shapes individually and putting each shape in a separate group, to keep easier track of them. Each TEXTURE has consisted of : a pattern preset applied to the shape, with changes to the pattern angle and scale; an overlying/clipped color fill laye; and a layer style for bevel, emboss, and contour.
TEXTURE C, above, also requires a Brightness Adjustment Layer, which I’ve been applying as an overlying/clipped layer. Since adjustments aren’t an effect that can be applied in a layer style, I’ll have to figure out how to apply that separately.
It only occured to me yesterday that I can create and save a layer style which incorporates everything listed in Par. 2 above. And I’m moving the shapes around from TEXTURE to TEXTURE when I see what they look like, so it’s doubley important to figure out how to set up just four groups for the TEXTURES.
To answer your question about nothing appearing in the preview of the shape layers, the shape layers have neither a fill or stroke until I apply the pattern to them. All you can see of the shapes are the green path outlines (when the paths are selected in the Paths panel.) The three images below show this.
Only the green shape pathlines appear in the document, and only when the paths are activated in the Paths panel.
No previews in the shape layer thumbnails.
The image above shows the TEX A layer style I just created, applied to the group. Unfortunately, nothing is appearing in the document for these layers and there is still no preview in the shape layer thumbnails.
The four images below show my settings in the Layer Styles dialog box.
Have I not done something in the settings that I should?
Could you please post screenshots with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) and the Canvas visible?
Not snippets of the Panels, but complete screenshots.
To answer your question about nothing appearing in the preview of the shape layers, the shape layers have neither a fill or stroke until I apply the pattern to them.
Don’t do that, please.
That a Pattern Overlay on an empty Fill Layer is visible seems to be (something close to) a bug, that applying it to a Group containing empty Layers does not result in a visible Pattern is as it should be.
The following is step-by-step, so let me say I’m not trying to talk down to anyone whose experience makes mine seem a drop in the bucket! I am just trying to be as thorough as possible lest I omit some crucial tidbit that could solve the mystery of why my group layer style doesn’t work.
I don’t know if it’s wrong, but I’ve been working successfully for the past week filling “empty” shape layers on my Mac (Adobe Ps v. 25.5.1 running natively on Apple M1, Mac OS 14.2.1.) I’ve been drawing my shapes with the Curvature Pen Tool and the Custom Shape Tool, always with Fill and Stroke turned off in the Options Bar. I’ve been leaving the Path Selection Tool selected. You can also see from the screenshot that:
- Fleur-d-Lisle Shape Path is active in the Paths panel and Layers panel;
- The green outline of the shape paths therefore appears in the document;
- The shape layer thumbnail is empty.
My very next step is to fill the selected Fleur-d-lisle Shapes with a pattern. I could do this from the Fill drop-down box in the Options Bar, but I prefer to use the Patterns panel.
The fill command was executed by clicking once on my chosen pattern. The pattern now appears in the Fill field in the Options Bar. It’s very faint, but I can just make out the two tiny shapes in the shape layer thumbnail. And, of course, the filled shapes show in the document. (When I deactivate the Shape Path in the Paths panel, the green path outlines will disappear from around the shapes.)
To prove to myself that the Layer Styles dialog box is working normally, here I accomplished the same effect on the next Shape Layer down, using Pattern Overlay from the Layer Styles dialog box.
So that brings me to what is NOT working—using a layer style applied to a group to execute the same pattern fill, as well as to give color to the black and white pattern and give the shapesa bevel and emboss. I selected the group, opened the Styles panel, and clicked on the layer style I had created, at the bottom of the list.
No fills.
Here is the Layer Styles dialog box showing the effects used. My screenshot doesn't pick up the box when it's on top of the Photoshop interface, so I had to screenshot it separately.
Please let me know if I can reload the correct screenshots for each of the Layer Styles effects, so you can see the settings I chose.
Thanks for bearing with me so I can learn to use this important work routine!
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