Working with layers: select, multi-select, copy and paste

This article shows you how to select layers quickly — including the right layer when several overlap — select many at once, copy and paste, and nudge layers into place with the keyboard.

Selecting a single layer

Click a layer on the canvas, or click its row in the layer panel. Canvas clicks are pixel-accurate: only a layer's visible pixels respond, so clicking the transparent area of an upper layer selects whatever is underneath it. If a layer is still hard to hit — locked, hidden behind artwork, or very small — select it from the layer panel instead.

Selecting multiple layers

On the canvas:

Drag on an empty area to draw a selection box around several layers.
Shift-click layers to add them to (or remove them from) the selection.

In the layer panel:

Shift+Click selects a range of rows.
Cmd+Click (Mac) / Ctrl+Click (Windows) toggles individual rows in and out of the selection.

With multiple layers selected you can move, delete, copy, or drop them into a folder as one block, and the alignment toolbar appears with align and distribute tools — see Alignment & distribution toolbar.

Several layers selected on the canvas with the alignment toolbar visible

Select all — in two steps

Press Cmd+A / Ctrl+A with a layer selected and the editor selects progressively:

First press — selects every layer of the same type as your current selection (for example, all photo layers).
Second press — selects all layers.

Locked and hidden layers are always skipped, so a select-all never grabs your background. Press Esc to deselect everything.

Copy and paste

Select one or more layers.
Press Cmd+C / Ctrl+C. A confirmation appears — "Layer copied" or "3 layers copied".
Press Cmd+V / Ctrl+V. The copies land slightly offset from the originals with auto-numbered names, and they're already selected so you can drag them straight into position.

You can paste the same clipboard repeatedly — each paste creates a fresh set of copies.

Nudging with the arrow keys

With one or more layers selected:

Arrow keys move the selection 10 pixels at a time.
Shift + arrow keys move it 1 pixel at a time for fine positioning.

The layer right-click menu

Right-click a layer row in the layer panel for quick actions. What you see depends on the layer type and your selection:

Download original — on image layers, downloads the full-resolution source image.
Include in render — on text and graphic layers, toggles whether the layer appears in the final image (see "Include in render" — keep guides out of the final image).
Create folder of selected layers — available when multiple layers are selected; groups them into a new folder.
Move to folder — moves the layer (or the whole selection) into an existing folder, or back out with (No folder).

The layer right-click menu showing Download original, Include in render, and Move to folder

Deleting layers

Press Delete to remove the selected layers, or use the trash icon that appears when you hover a layer row. Deleting a multi-selection removes all of it at once.

Batch operations and undo

Operations on a multi-selection — moving, deleting, aligning, distributing — count as a single undo step. One Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z reverses the whole batch, and your selection is preserved after alignment operations so you can chain several in a row.