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Organise layers and groups

Layers are the objects that make up one side of a design. The Layers panel shows the frontmost item at the top and the backmost item at the bottom.

An exploded game-card design showing stacked layers, grouped icons, and a hidden layer

Change stack order​

A Designer layer's right-click menu with bring to front, bring forward, send backward, and send to back, plus Move to for the top level or another group

Select a layer or group, then use the Quick actions below the Layers panel, the keyboard shortcuts, or its right-click menu:

  • Bring forward moves it one position towards the front.
  • Send backward moves it one position towards the back.
  • Bring to front places it above the other items at that level.
  • Send to back places it below the other items at that level.

You can also drag rows in the Layers panel. Drop an item inside a group to make it part of that group, or onto Move to root level, shown while you drag, to place it outside every group at the bottom of the stack. Without dragging, right-click a row (or press and hold it on a touch screen) and choose a group under Move to, or Top level. Stack actions on grouped items stay within their current group; moving a group reorders the group and its contents together.

  1. Select two or more layers or guides.
  2. Right-click and choose Group selected, use the Group selected quick action, or press Ctrl/Cmd + G.
  3. Rename the group for its purpose: right-click it and choose Rename, or press F2 in the Layers panel.
  4. Collapse the group when you do not need to inspect its children.

Groups may contain layers, guides, and other groups. Selecting a group lets you move, lock, hide, duplicate, reorder, or delete its contents together. Ungroup selected removes the group while keeping its contents.

An empty group is allowed and can be useful as a named destination before you add content; create one with New empty group at the top of the Layers panel. Delete group removes the group and everything in it, after a confirmation. Nested groups keep repeated structures together, but use only as many levels as make the Layers panel easier to scan.

Lock, hide, and colour-code​

  • Lock prevents canvas dragging but does not remove the item from output.
  • Hide removes a layer from the canvas preview and from exports. Use it for intentional alternates, not printer-only notes that you might forget to restore.
  • A group visibility control hides or shows all items in that group.
  • Panel colours are labels for organising the layer list: red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink, or grey. A coloured row gets a light tint of that colour across the whole row, and its text stays easy to read; colours do not appear on the game piece. Choose Row color in the right-click menu of a layer, group, guide, or selection, and pick No color to clear it. Dataset rows use the same colours.

Right-click a canvas object for stack actions, lock, visibility, duplicate, comments, effects, delete, and panel colour. Right-click its Layers-panel row for stack actions, lock, rename, deletion, grouping, Move to, effects, and panel colour. Right-clicking a row that is not selected selects only that row (hold Ctrl/Cmd to add it to the selection instead); right-clicking a row inside the selection keeps the whole selection, so the menu acts on all of it.

Show only part of a design​

To work on some layers without the rest in the way, right-click and choose Show only this layer, Show only this group, or Show only selected. The canvas then draws only those layers, the other rows in the Layers panel fade, and a line at the top of the panel says how many layers are shown. Everything comes back when you deselect (click empty canvas), select a layer outside the ones shown, switch between face and back, press Esc, or choose Show all (also in the right-click menu as Show all layers). Selecting layers inside the ones shown keeps the view.

Show only is just a view for you: it does not hide anything in the design, is not saved or shown to collaborators, and exports always include every layer. Layers you hid with the eye stay hidden.

Use the eye and the yellow lock on a layer's or group's row to hide or lock it directly. They appear when you point at a row, reach it with the keyboard, or select it, and stay visible on a hidden or locked layer; on touch screens they are always shown. Controls never jump: one that appears never pushes another that is already showing. A locked row's lock is filled in. A layer with effects shows an fx badge with the number of effects at the end of its row; click it to show or hide the effect list. Point at a shortened name to see it in full.

Drag the edge between the Layers panel or the inspector and the canvas to make the panel wider or narrower, or focus that edge and use the arrow keys.

Apply effects at the right level​

Image appearance changes the image inside its frame. Layer effects (Frame effects on an image layer) move with one layer; groups are organisational and do not have their own effect stack. Whole-side effects (Design filters in Design settings) run after the face or back is combined.

See Add and order effects for the available treatments, Shape and Box behaviour, and effect order.

Keep print content safe​

Extend backgrounds through the bleed and keep important text and symbols inside the safe area. The trim line is an expected cutting range, not a guaranteed pixel boundary. Check bound rows in Export QA, because long text and low-resolution artwork may only affect some generated pieces.