Layer blend ranges

About blend ranges

Blend ranges allow you to specify how tonal values of a layer blend with the layer(s) below. You can set the range of the tonal values affected and can set the range to have any level of opacity (from opaque to transparent).

After — Before and after blend range applied.

The blend range of the selected layer and the underlying layer(s) is controlled via the spline graphs in Layer Options.

You can change the blend range for individual colour channels by changing the setting above the spline graphs.

About blend gamma and antialiasing (RGB documents only)

Layer Options allow you to adjust the blend Gamma of the selected layer. This gives you the option of designing using a linear-RGB colour space (1.0), regular sRGB-blending (2.2) or any gamma value up to 3.0. In other words, it gives you full control over how the tones of semi-transparent or antialiased edged objects interact with colours underneath.

Regular sRGB-blending — Blue rectangle using regular sRGB-blending (2.2 gamma; before) and linear-RGB (1.0 gamma; after).

Antialiasing is the reduction of the jagged appearance of lines on a pixel grid. Antialiasing is achieved by the addition of semi-transparent pixels along the line to smooth the transition from the line's edge to background objects. This area of transition is sometimes referred to as the antialiasing ramp or antialiasing coverage.

Layer Options allow you to adjust the antialiasing ramp (coverage) of the selected layer, as well as control how (and if) antialiasing is inherited or set independently of other layers. For improved workflow, child layers nested hierarchically in a parent layer can inherent the parent layer's antialiasing setting automatically but can be forced to apply antialiasing or ignore it.

Settings

The following settings are available via Layer Options:

Gamma—controls the layer's blend gamma.
Antialiasing Mode—controls antialiasing behaviour for the selected layer: Inherit (default) adopts antialiasing from any parent layer, while Force On and Force Off respectively applies or disables antialiasing independently of any other layers.
Channels—controls which channel is affected when adjusting the blend range. Select from the pop-up menu.
Source & Dest—spline graphs that control the layer's blending.

The following settings can be adjusted for both the Source and the Dest graphs:

Graph—controls the affected range of pixels and the opacity of pixels within the Source Layer or Destination Layer ranges.
Reset—returns the graph to the default position (a straight line between two nodes positioned at the top of the grid).
Delete—removes the selected node to simplify the shape of the graph.
Linear—when enabled, the graduation between two nodes is linear (i.e. nodes on the graph are connected using straight lines). If this option is off, nodes are connected using smooth curves.

To change blend ranges:

On the Layers panel, select a layer.
Tap Layer Options.
Adjust the blend range settings at the bottom of the dialog.
Tap Source and Dest to reveal their spline graphs. Modify as required.

To adjust a graph directly:

Do any of the following:

Drag a node horizontally to control which range of tonal values it affects.
Drag a node vertically to affect the visibility of pixels at the tonal value selected.
Tap on the curve to add additional nodes.
Tap to select a node and then tap Remove.

About blend ranges

About blend gamma and antialiasing (RGB documents only)

Settings

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