Both layer opacity and fill control transparency. Both of this control which amount a user can
show the upper selection of layer into the lower layer. Generally we reduce the
standard of the opacity to reduce the transparency of the layer. But in fill
option if there is option to reduce transparency then why keep these two tools?
Obviously there has a difference, hasn’t it?
When we work with the layer style of Photoshop then the
difference between opacity and fill is occurred. If you are not added any style
in your layer such as stroke, drop shadow, bevel and emboss or outer glow then
you will get the same result by reducing the standard of opacity and fill. On
the other hand if you apply more than one style then opacity and fill will
perform separately. For an example:
Here I add a photo in
Photoshop, I add a simple text, and the word is “DREAM”. If we see the layer panels
then we see that the photo of the girl seat in the background layer and in the
upper of type layer the word “DREAM” is remain. The upper of type layer one of
this copies I stop for some time. The option of opacity remains the right
corner of the layer panel. And the fill option remains under the opacity
option. The value of these two options is set predetermined. That means my text
is fully visible which I select. I will reduce the value of fill 50% and
increase the value of opacity 50%.
If we reduce the opacity value in 50%, then the clarity of
the word “dream” will reduce 50%. And through this the lower photo will see
partly. Again if we set the fill at 50%
then the clarity of the text will increase 50% and we get the same result.
With layer style
opacity vs. fill
Still now we will not see any difference between opacity and
fill. But these two things are applied in that place where there is no usage of
layer. By typing layer visibility icon
I stopped my type layer. As a result the main type layer will disappear, then I
click the copy layer of type layer’s layer
visibility icon and type layer will on. In this new layer there is a same
text as the upper layer and the main difference is that here I add some styles
such as stroke, a faint drop shadow, and a bevel and emboss effect. Around my
writing I see stroke and you can see drop shadow behind the text. When fill
become white, user can see bevel and emboss effect. User can see the list of
layer effect by clicking the arrow sign of the right side of “FX”
button and Only to see that whether the effect called drop shadow, bevel,
emboss and stroke is applied or not. Let’s see what happened in layer if we
reduce the value of opacity in 50%. Reducing the opacity of new layer here we had done 50%
transparent in all things of this layer. That means we not only talk about the
text but also all effects that we applied. In this layer all things are cleared
for reducing opacity at 50%.
Now again I increase the value of opacity at 50% and
decrease the value of fill at 50%. It is that difference which we see between
opacity and fill. Reducing the value of opacity all things became unclear or
reduce clarity but only reducing fill only reduce the clarity of the text. The
layer option which I added is 100% visible. There is no change because of
changing the effect of stroke, drop shadow, and bevel and emboss. Reducing the
clarity of the text we can see bevel and emboss.
Let’s go reduce the value of fill at 0%. Reducing the value
of fill at 0%, the text became clear. But the layer styles are visible that we
applied. The value of fill will not affect the style of layer and give me a
fantastic text which is impossible through opacity. This is the main difference
between opacity and fill. Opacity brings the change everything in layer. On the
other hand the value of fill brings change only content that is occurred in our
text. Through the fill value layer style that considers main content of
Photoshop layer as a separate and 100% visible and unchanged. From the starting
I said that if you had decreased the transparency of any layer then you can
reduce opacity. But if you have applied the layer style and only changed the
content if you remain the visibility 100% then you can apply our example.