If you've ever put a drop shadow on text, outlined a sticker with a stroke, or faked depth with a bevel, you've used layer styles. They're the workhorse of graphic design in Photoshop — and as of this week, the full stack is live in PhotoFresco, running entirely in your browser.
This isn't a "shadow filter." It's the complete layer-style system: the same ten effects, the same dialog layout, the same math, and the same PSD compatibility you'd expect from the desktop original.
Everything that shipped
Open Layer → Layer Style… (or double-click the fx badge on any styled layer in the Layers panel) and you'll find the full effect list:
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Drop Shadow | The classic — offset shadow behind the layer, with angle, distance, spread and size. |
| Inner Shadow | Shadow cast inside the layer's edge; instant recessed / letterpress look. |
| Outer Glow | Soft halo radiating outward — neon signs, magic effects, focus pulls. |
| Inner Glow | Glow from the edge inward, from either the edge or the center. |
| Bevel & Emboss | Simulated 3D lighting on the layer's edges — with the full Contour and Texture sub-sections. |
| Satin | Interior shading that follows the layer's shape; the secret behind glass and metal looks. |
| Color Overlay | Recolor the whole layer non-destructively. |
| Gradient Overlay | A gradient across the layer's fill, with blend mode and opacity. |
| Pattern Overlay | Tile a pattern across the layer's fill. |
| Stroke | Outline the layer's shape — inside, outside, or centered. |
Plus the Blending Options page, including the Blend If sliders (more on those below — they're the sleeper feature of the whole dialog).
Two details worth calling out for Photoshop users:
- Multiple instances per effect. Like recent Photoshop versions, you can stack more than one of the same effect — two strokes, three drop shadows — with the little + next to the effect's name. One stroke inside, one outside, is the fastest sticker outline there is.
- Use Global Light works the way it should: shadows and bevels that opt in share one light angle across the whole document, so rotating the light in one effect keeps every other layer's lighting consistent — that's Photoshop's semantics, reproduced exactly.
Live, non-destructive, undoable
Every slider updates the canvas as you drag it — no Apply-and-look cycle. And none of it touches your pixels: layer styles are computed at composite time, on top of your untouched layer data. That means you can:
- toggle any effect on and off indefinitely,
- restyle text after rewriting it (styles follow the layer, not the pixels),
- remove everything at once with
Layer → Layer Style → Clear Layer Style, - and undo any change like every other edit — styles go through the same history system as brush strokes.
It matches Photoshop — measurably
"Looks about right" wasn't the bar. PhotoFresco's blend math has a single source of truth per blend mode, shared between the GPU and CPU compositors and covered by parity tests — and the layer-style renderer is held to the same standard, verified against reference renders from the real Photoshop. Angle, spread, size, contour curves: the goal is that a document styled in PhotoFresco composites the way Photoshop would composite it, not merely something reminiscent of it.
That discipline pays off in the feature most editors get wrong:
Your PSDs round-trip losslessly
Open a PSD with styled layers and the styles come in as live effects — not flattened pixels. Every parameter lands in the dialog, editable. Change a shadow color, save, and the file goes back out with proper layer-effect records that Photoshop reads natively.
This is the difference between "supports PSD" and actually supporting PSD. A cutout tool that flattens your drop shadows on import has quietly destroyed your work, even if the first render looks fine. PhotoFresco treats the style data as what it is: part of your document.
Three recipes to steal
The sticker. Add a Stroke (white, 8–12 px, outside) and a Drop Shadow (low distance, medium size, ~35% opacity) to any cutout — instant die-cut sticker. Stack a second, darker stroke outside the white one for the printed look.
The neon sign. On a text layer: Color Overlay in a hot color, Outer Glow in the same hue (larger size, screen blend), plus a subtle Inner Glow to brighten the core. Dark background required, atmosphere free of charge.
The letterpress. Inner Shadow with small distance and size, angled from the top, on text set in a heavy weight over a paper-toned background. One effect, instant print shop.
The sleeper feature: Blend If
Hiding on the Blending Options page are the Blend If sliders — the most underrated tool in Photoshop, faithfully reproduced here. They make a layer's pixels visible or invisible based on brightness: either the layer's own, or the layers underneath.
The classic use: drop text or a logo onto a textured photo, open Blending Options, and drag the Underlying Layer shadow slider to the right. The texture's dark grain starts punching through your layer, and it suddenly looks printed on the surface instead of pasted over it. Alt/Option-drag splits the slider handle for a smooth transition instead of a hard cutoff — exactly as in Photoshop.
Try it in the next thirty seconds
No download, no account: open the editor, type some text with the Type tool, then hit Layer → Layer Style… and turn on a drop shadow. Everything renders on your own machine — your files never leave your device — and everything you make saves to a PSD that Photoshop opens without complaint.
Layer styles were one of the most-requested features on our list, and one of the deepest to build well. They're live now, they're free, and they're waiting one click away.