Make changes easier

Create individual components on separate layers to make them easier to edit. For example, for an illustration of a car speeding down a highway in the mountains, create the car, the driver, the highway, and the mountains on separate layers.

For more information, see Creating layers.

Move multiple layers together on the image canvas

Link or group layers that need to move together. For example, link the car and the driver in the previous example so that when you move the car, the driver moves with it.

For more information, see Linking layers.

Edit graphical elements

Create vector objects on vector layers for objects that you need to fine-tune or edit.

For more information, see Creating layers.

Apply raster-only commands and effects to vector objects

Create a new layer with raster copies of the vector objects. To do this, duplicate the vector layer, and then convert it to a raster layer. Turn off the visibility of the vector layer to work on the raster layer.

For more information about duplicating layers, see Duplicating and copying layers. For more information about hiding layers, see To show or hide all layers.

Experiment with changes

Make a copy of a layer, and make changes to it. Copy other layers, and make changes to them. Turn the visibility of layers off and on to find which layer works best for the overall image.

Save work in progress

Keep a copy of the intermediate steps of transformations, and then turn off the visibility of those layers. Keeping a copy lets you retrace your steps later if you need to.