Contents

• Creating a New Project
• Creating New Layers
• Renaming Layers
• Moving Layers
• Merging Layers
• Duplicating Layers
• Exporting Layers

Creating a New Project

To create a new Layered Image Project, select File > New or press Ctrl+N. Then, select New Layered Image from the list:

Choose a width and height for the canvas. You can also choose whether or not the first layer is transparent or filled with white.

Hit OK. You'll now be looking at a new layered image project:

On the right side of the screen, you'll see the Layer panel. This allows you to add, remove, rename, re-order and delete layers.

Creating New Layers

In the bottom left of the Layer panel, click the "+" button to add a new layer. Afterwards, you will see two layers:

Renaming Layers

Double click on the layer to rename it. Press Enter to confirm the changes, or Escape to cancel.

Moving Layers

Moving a layer affects whether or not is drawn above or below other layers. The lowest layer in the list is drawn first, and then each layer above it is drawn in order. This means that the highest layer in the Layers panel will be drawn on top of all other layers, the one below it will be drawn above the ones below it, and so on.

To move a layer, select it and then press the up or down button at the bottom of the Layer panel. Alternatively, the following menu items can be used:

• Layers > Move Layer Up
• Layers > Move Layer Down

Merging Layers

Merging a layer with another layer results in both being combined into one layer. The layer that was higher up in the list will be drawn on top of the lower layer as part of the merging process. To merge a layer with another layer, first select it and then select one of the following menu items (depending on whether the target layer is above or below the selected layer, respectively):

• Layers > Merge Layer Up
• Layers > Merge Layer Down

Duplicating Layers

A layer can be duplicated by first selecting it and then clicking the duplicate button in the Layer panel.

Exporting Layers

Layered image projects can be exported by File > Export or with Ctrl+Shift+E. If you'd like the project to be automatically exported every time you save, check the Auto Export menu item under the File menu. The image will be saved to a file with the same name as the project, except with a .png extension.

It's also possible to export one or more layers into a separate image by giving those layers a prefix. For example, in the image below, the layer at the top is given the prefix [something], and will be saved as something.png:

A common use case for exporting images is to use the name of the project and a suffix. The %p variable can be used for this purpose. It expands to the name of the project, and anything after it will be appended to the file name of the exported image. For example, if the project was named my-project.slp, the layers named [%p-content] left and [%p-content] right would be exported as an image named my-project-content.png. Anything after the prefix is ignored and only serves to differentiate layers with the same prefix.

It is also possible to use the [no-export] prefix to prevent a layer from being exported. This is useful if you are experimenting with something and need to see how it looks without affecting the exported images.