Layers, masks & selections

Everything in PhotoFresco is built on the layered, non-destructive model you know from Photoshop: stack layers, constrain them with masks and selections, and keep every step undoable.

The Layers panel

The Layers panel (Window ▸ Layers) is the heart of the editor. Each row has a visibility eye, a thumbnail, and any masks or effects attached to the layer. From the panel header you can set:

• Blend mode — all 27 Photoshop blend modes, in the same menu order: Normal, Dissolve, the Darken group (Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Linear Burn, Darker Color), the Lighten group (Lighten, Screen, Color Dodge, Linear Dodge, Lighter Color), the contrast group (Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix), the comparative group (Difference, Exclusion, Subtract, Divide) and the component group (Hue, Saturation, Color, Luminosity). The math matches Photoshop's 8-bit sRGB behavior, so blends look the same here as there.
• Opacity vs. Fill — Opacity fades the whole layer including its effects; Fill fades only the layer's own pixels while layer styles (a stroke, a drop shadow) keep full strength — the classic trick for outlined shapes and glass text.
• Locks — transparent pixels, image pixels, position, or everything.

Layer types

• Pixel layers — ordinary raster content.
• Text layers — editable type (see the Type tool).
• Shape layers — vector shapes with live fill and stroke.
• Fill layers — solid color, gradient or pattern (Layer ▸ New Fill Layer).
• Adjustment layers — non-destructive corrections (below).
• Smart Objects — wrap layers into an embedded, re-editable document: Layer ▸ Smart Objects ▸ Convert to Smart Object, then transform freely without losing quality; Edit Contents reopens the original, Replace Contents swaps it.
• Groups — fold layers into folders (⌘G / Ctrl+G), which can carry their own mask, blend mode and opacity.

Adjustment layers

Layer ▸ New Adjustment Layer (or the Adjustments panel) adds a correction that floats above the stack instead of touching pixels: Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves, Exposure, Hue/Saturation, Vibrance, Color Balance, Black & White, Photo Filter, Channel Mixer, Gradient Map, Selective Color, Color Lookup, Invert, Posterize and Threshold. Double-click one to edit it in the Properties panel.

Two scoping tools make adjustments surgical:

• An adjustment layer created while a selection is active starts with that selection as its mask.
• Clip it to the layer below (⌥⌘G / Ctrl+Alt+G, or Alt/Option-click the boundary between two layers) so it affects only that layer — a clipping mask.

The same Image ▸ Adjustments entries can also be applied destructively to the current layer when that's what you want.

Masks

A mask hides parts of a layer without deleting them — paint black to conceal, white to reveal, gray for partial transparency.

• Layer masks — Layer ▸ Layer Mask ▸ Reveal All (or the mask button in the Layers panel). If a selection is active, the new mask starts from it. Masks can be disabled temporarily, applied permanently, deleted, or created From Transparency.
• Vector masks — crisp, path-based masks made from pen paths (Layer ▸ Vector Mask).
• Quick Mask (Q) — turns the current selection into a red overlay you can edit with any painting tool, then press Q again to get the refined selection back. The fastest way to "paint a selection."

Selections

Selections limit where paint, filters and adjustments land. The tools — marquee, lassos, wand, Quick Selection, Object Selection — are covered in the Tools reference; the machinery around them:

• Combine — every selection tool supports New / Add / Subtract / Intersect modes; Shift-drag adds and Alt/Option-drag subtracts without touching the options bar.
• Basics — Select All (⌘A / Ctrl+A), Deselect (⌘D / Ctrl+D), Reselect (⇧⌘D / Ctrl+Shift+D), Inverse (⇧⌘I / Ctrl+Shift+I).
• Refine — Select ▸ Feather… softens edges; Grow and Similar extend by color; Expand / Contract / Border / Smooth adjust the shape; Select and Mask… is the full edge-refinement workspace; Color Range… builds a selection from sampled colors.
• Transform Selection — scale or rotate the selection outline itself, without moving pixels.
• Save / Load Selection — store a selection as a channel and bring it back later (see the Channels panel).

History

Every edit is a command in the History panel (Window ▸ History) — the last 64 steps are kept, and even AI generations land there. ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z undoes, ⇧⌘Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes, and ⌥⌘Z / Ctrl+Alt+Z toggles the last state for quick before/after checks. Edit ▸ Fade… softens the last operation after the fact.