I change my mind. A lot. And about a lot of different things, including digital scrapbooking projects. I was chatting with one of my Creative Team Members, Renee, the other day, and she admitted to doing the same thing.
Here is a beautiful cluster that Renee created using Round Robin Week 1 Fly Away Home. Notice that there are 4 layers that Renee changed her mind on. She clicked on the eyeball to the left of the layer to make that layer invisible.
Although the layers are invisible, they will still add to the file size when saved as a PSD or TIFF file.
This particular file, when saved as a PSD, just as you see it above, is 101 MB. When I removed the layers that were invisible, the file size was 92.5 MB. That is a difference of 8.5 MB. Perhaps not a huge amount, but 1) there are only 4 invisible layers in this cluster, and 2) consider how that would add up in multiple files!
We want to conserve our hard drive space, so let’s remove those invisible layers before saving our PSD or TIFF files. There are several ways to do that:
1. Click on the layers you want to delete and drag them to the Trash Can at the bottom of the Layers Panel. To select multiple layers, click on the first layer you want to delete, hold down the Control key, and click on the rest of the layers you would like to delete. To select multiple layers that are adjacent to one another, click on the top layer, click and hold the Shift key, and click on the last layer.
2. You can also select the layer you would like to delete (invisible or not), and then click the Trash Can icon, rather than dragging the layers to it. This is easier than dragging the layers, I think.
3. If a lot of layers have been turned off, it can be tedious to select them all. A faster way to delete multiple invisible layers is to go to Menu Bar at the top of the screen > Layer > Delete > Hidden Layers.
Photoshop Elements Users:
1. In Method 1 above, you will drag layers up to the top of the Layers Panel, where your Trash Can is located.
2. Method 2 works exactly the same as in Photoshop.
3. Method 3 is not available in Photoshop Elements.
If you haven’t been deleting invisible layers, why not start now? It might even be worth your time to go back through your files and delete any blank layers you have in order to recapture some hard drive space!
Renee has graciously allowed me to share her beautiful cluster with you! Just click on the image below to download!
If you would like to keep this tutorial on your computer for easy reference, you may download a PDF here.
If you are a visual learner, you can view this tutorial on SnickerdoodleDesigns YouTube Channel and on theStudio’s YouTube Channel.
Please head over to YouTube and take a minute to Follow both channels. Each Channel will have some exclusive videos, so by following both channels, you will be sure not to miss a thing! Thank you!!
Thanks for stopping by! See you next week!
Karen Schulz/SnickerdoodleDesigns
This really puts into perspective how lazy we (I) can be with regard to the hidden layers, thanks for reminding me of the amount of wasted space I have saved on my files. This will be a something I MUST remember from now on.
I always wonder if you were hatched at Adobe as one of their creative ideas. You know soooo much about PhotoShop! Thanks for sharing your awesome and very practical knowledge.
I usually delete my hidden layers when I am finished with a project, but while in progress I do keep them in case I change my mind & do want to use those layers. Thank for the tip on how to delete them all at once — I was deleting each layer individually. thanks also for the lovely cluster!
🙂 Thanks for these tips Karen. As you know, I’m like Pam in that I like to keep the layers in case I change my mind. But then I forget to delete them before I save. I’ve never looked at the before and after file sizes but I can see where this tip will make a big difference, especially with the amount of files I save.
Enjoy the cluster:)
Wow! What a great reminder, thanks so much Karen. In these days of hard drives measured in Terrabytes, I think it’s all too easy to get into lazy habits. This is something I really need to start doing…again…LOL.
Did you also know that if you make a blank white layer at the top of the layers panel (over the top of all of your work) and save your file, the size of the file will be reduced by at least one third ? It can sometimes be a nuisance to remember when you open the file at a later date that it isn’t blank but just hidden under the white layer, but it certainly does save Hard Drive space even more !!
i didn’t realize you could delete hidden layers that way! THANKS for that great tip, Karen, and for this reminder to manage filesize!
Oh my gosh did I ever need to read this tutorial! Thank you so much. I guess I always thought that if a layer was hidden it didn’t take up space on my hard drive when saved or most likely didn’t think of it one way or another. For awhile now seems any extra monies I get has gone to purchasing external hard drives. I have been filling them up too fast. Now I know I will need to take some time and go through everything to delete hidden layers of too many saved as psd files even though jpg files were made on final on many of the saved psd files. A great big thanks for the pdf file for this tutorial as well as the YouTube. I’ve had a few hard drive crashes and lost a few files that I even save your zip files on an external hard drive. Guess I figure if another crash takes some of my files I for sure want to be sure I can retrieve those of yours. Some of your older retired kits/collections I still use a lot and never want to lose them. Can’t afford to purchase a lot of extra external hard drives to save all zip files or probably would. Hate it when I lose something. I do back up all files on my computer but recently had one external hard drive become useless–can’t open it any more. Thanks be to God I found out in time to purchase another and backup everything again.
I do this all the time, thanks for the information. I won’t be doing it anymore!