Hi.
Welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel.com.
I'm Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to export layers as files in Photoshop.
I'm going to show you three techniques.
One technique for older versions of Photoshop, and two techniques for Photoshop CC.
Okay, Let's get started.
We're going to work with this document.
It contains three layers.
We have a background layer, this vector graphic with a layer style and this text layer, also
with a layer style.
I'm currently working in Photoshop CC, but in older versions of Photoshop, if you want
to export your layers as files, you need to go under File, Scripts, and from Scripts,
select Layers to Files.
However, in Photoshop CC, that option is not here.
It has been moved to the Export Menu, Layers to Files.
So, in older versions of Photoshop, you'll find this under the Scripts Menu.
You can select Layers to Files, and from here, you can select where you want to save your files.
So, I'm going to click on the Browse button, and I can just save them here under this Export
Files folder and press Okay.
Next, you need to give your files a name prefix.
By default, you'll see the file name, export files layer.
That's the name of the file.
You can see that here.
Then you can change that if you want to.
Next, you can decide which files to save.
Base level files only, which means the files that have the eye icon enabled.
In this case, we don't need it.
All the files are enabled.
So, I'll uncheck that, so that all the files are saved, even if they were not visible.
Next, you can select a file type.
In this case, since we're working with layers that contain transparency, like the arrow
in the text layer, I'm going to select PNG 24.
I can include the color profile.
I, of course, want to keep the transparency, and I want to trim the layers, so that we
only save the areas that contain actual pixels and not a document that's the same size as
the entire canvas.
Then I can click on Run and Photoshop will save all the files as layers, and you'll get
a notification once all the files are saved.
I'm going to bring up the folder where those files were saved, and you can see them here.
You can see the prefix, and you can see the layer name after the prefix.
So, if I open them up, you can see them.
There they are, and they don't really have a gray background.
This is just what my file preview shows as transparency, gray, but you can see that,
in reality, it does have transparency there.
And what I'll do now is just delete these files because we don't need them.
So, I'll highlight then and press the Delete key and bring this folder down.
Now, this is the old way of saving layers as files in Photoshop.
Photoshop CC has a new way of doing it, which, in my opinion, is actually better.
Let me show you how that works.
You can simply click on a layer to select it, and hold Shift to select multiple layers
or, if you want to skip between layers, you can select the layer and press Ctrl, that's
command the Mac.
And click, and you select non-consecutive layers.
In this case, I'm just going to select the top layer, hold Shift and click on the bottom
layer to select them all.
And, with the layers that you want to export selected, all you need to do is right click
to the side of any of those layers and select Quick Export as PNG.
This window will come up, and we can save the files here.
It's the same folder that I used before, and I can click Select Folder, and those files are now saved.
If I bring up that folder, you can see that the files are here just as they were before
with the Export to Layers script.
The difference is the file name.
The file name is simply the layer name plus the extension of the file, . png.
You can actually change how the Quick Export as PNG behaves by changing properties in the
Preferences panel.
If you press Ctrl K, Command can to Mac, that brings up the preferences window, and under
Export, you can see the options for the Quick Export format.
We were using PNG, but I can change it to JPEG, and then I get options relative to that
file type, and if I press Ok, you'll notice that this time when I right click, I will
see Quick Export as JPEG and not PNG.
I'm going to go back into the preferences panel by pressing Ctrl K, Command can to Mac.
Under Export, I'm going to change it back to PNG because that's the option that I prefer.
Photoshop also allows you to export the files into a folder next to the current document.
I prefer to decide where to save my files, so I have Ask Where To Export Each Time selected.
You can also decide to save the Metadata into the file and whether you want to convert the
file to sRBG or not.
If you're creating web graphics, then convert to sRBG is okay.
So, I'm going to press Okay, and now those settings are applied to my Quick Export as
PNG command.
The third and final way of exporting layers into files in Photoshop is by right clicking
and selecting Export As.
That brings up the Export As window, and we get a whole lot more options, and we can decide
what to do with each layer.
So, I can click on one of layers here on the left-hand side and adjust the properties.
So, we have two layers that have transparency.
So these two layers I will use the PNG format with Transparency checked, but for my background
layer, since I don't have any transparency, I don't really need to use the PNG format.
I can use a JPEG, which will give me a smaller file size.
You can see that here on the side, on the right-hand side, how it's 3.1 MB, but if I
change it to a JPEG, it comes down to 1.3, even with a 100% quality.
So, I can save these files and apply each setting that I like to them.
I'm not going to spend time going through all the different settings because, if you
click on this link here, Export Options, that will bring up a page on Adobe's website that
describes every single option in this panel.
So, you can even see what all the different re-sample algorithms do.
So, I won't spend too much time talking about that, but if you want to know what each of
these options controls, then click on the link.
Once you set your options, you can click on the Export All button, and I'll use this file location.
Click on Select Folder, and my files are now saved there.
If I bring up the folder, you will see that I have my three files.
The background is a JPEG.
The arrow and the export layers graphics are PNGs, and just like with the Quick Export,
the files take the name of the layer.
And, by the way, if you enjoy this tutorial, then don't forget to check out my video on
Photoshop's history log.
It's a little known feature that allows you to track all your changes.
It's like creating a step-by-step tutorial automatically.
Also, if this is your first time at the Photoshop training channel, then don't forget to click
on the Subscribe and Notification buttons.
Thank you so much for watching, and I will talk to you again in the next tutorial.