The following section will show you how to create and work with layers, explain the relevant concepts, and illustrate some of the main operations that can be carried out with them.
First, you may want to edit a picture file, for example, a photograph that you have already scanned in to your computer.
Select Open from the File menu and locate and open the relevant picture file.
The picture will be displayed in the Ability Photopaint window. If the picture is larger than the window and you want to see it as a whole, without having to use the scroll bars, then select Fit on Screen from the View menu. You can always select Actual Pixels to restore the picture to its original size.
The picture occupies the Background layer, as explained in Background layer. This is the default layer and can be edited directly or used as the basis for editing on other layers. It is best to keep the background layer clean; if you wish to edit it directly, work on a copy of it instead. (You might also choose to work on a copy of the original file: select Duplicate from the Image menu. A copy will be created and displayed. You can then close the original file by selecting it from the Window menu and continue to work with the copy, which is converted to an Ability Photopaint file. Note that Image/Duplicate creates a copy in which Background acts like any other layer.)
To create a copy of the Background layer, first make sure the "Layers" dialog is visible (select Layers from the View menu). Background will be the only layer visible in the dialog until you create another one. Click on the Duplicate Layer button in the dialog to open up the "Duplicate Layer" dialog. Click on OK to create a copy of the background layer.
Note that though these two layers are called Background and Copy of Background, they are in effect Layers 1 and 2 - if you add a new layer to them it will be called Layer 3.
Any layer can be renamed by clicking on the Layer Options button in the "Layers" dialog.
Now that you have created two layers you can see both of them listed in the "Layers" dialog. The bottom layer in the dialog is always the "background" layer, and the ones above are stacked on top of this. Any new layer is added to the top of the stack, that is, it becomes the layer furthest away from the background layer.
The list of layers has several important features. These need to be grasped if you are to use layers successfully:
At the left-hand side of each layer there is an Eye button. As you would expect, this indicates that the layer is presently visible. Click once to switch off the eye button (and once again to switch it back on). By switching off a layer you make it impossible to see any image content from that layer, thereby making the content of the layer below visible (in so far as it was hidden by the image on the hidden layer). You can switch off as many layers as you like, and also have any combination of switched-on and switched-off layers.
The currently selected (or highlighted) layer is the active layer. Any editing you do is always implemented on the active layer. Since it is not possible to have more than one active layer at a time, none of the inactive layers will be affected by your editing. This is, of course, the main value of layers in the first place. You can make any other layer the active one simply by clicking on it.
With this in mind it is important to note the following: a layer may be the active one and at the same time be invisible, that is with the eye button switched off. If this is the case, you will not be able to see the effects of editing until you switch on the eye again, but editing will be applied to the currently selected active layer whether or not it is currently visible.
See: