Need help with flattening/bevel-emboss

[Jon]

I have spent over 2 hours on this and I can't seem to overcome the hurdle....I am working with a text layer that I've rasterized and the only modification to the text is a drop shadow and bevel & emboss. I have some photos in the layers beneath the text layer. Anyway, when I flatten the layers or merge down the layers, the emboss part of the text becomes lessened by a huge degree. What can I do to maintain the embossing effect on the text layer? Thanks for your help!!

[Racc Iria]

Jon

Try creating a new, empty layer and then merging that new layer with your rasterized text layer. You can do this in CS2 by control clicking on each of the layers and then clicking the little triangle at the top right of the layers palette and selecting Merge Layers. Or by hitting CTRL+E.

This results in the layer style being "rasterized" as part of your text layer and should look the same as before. You should now be able to flatten or merge any of the layers without the layer style changing.

If using an older version of Photoshop, link the two layers together and select merge linked from the triangle menu, instead.


Another method you could use... Don't worry about merging or flattening anything. One you have the image the way you want it to look in all its layered glory... simply highlight one of the visible layers, do a select all, then copy merged (located in the Edit menu or press Shift+Ctrl+C). Immediately create a new image by going to File>New and accept the defaults in the dialog. Once the new image has been created, go to the edit menu and select paste or press Ctrl+V. You should now have an identical flattened copy of your layered file.

Hope that helps.

--Racc

[Swampy]

Another option in Adobe CS2 is to separate the style(s) from the text then being able to work with each element of the style as normal layers. Duplicate them, mask were you may not want the style to appear, change the stacking order etc.

In the sample below I only applied a simple drop shadow, but if you have added other style elements to the text they will each be assigned to their own layer when you create the layers.

[Racc Iria]

Yep, that's another possibility. And it works well 99.9% of the time.

But when you do that you get a warning (unless it's been turned off) that some of the aspects of the layer style might not be accurately reproduced. And I have run into that in rare instances.

--Racc

[Swampy]

True, Racc. If I need to perform this technique, I always work on a duplicate layer of the text and keep things grouped in sets to avoid confusion. Especially if the style is complex.

[Racc Iria]

Same here.

But for Jon's sake, since that's what he was having trouble with, I didn't want to introduce him to something that might still shift his layer style and leave him wondering what to do next.

But, you're right... Creating layers from the layer style is a good technique to know.

--Racc

[Jon]

thanks guys/gals for helping me out on this one! I intend on trying both techniques.