Ever tried doing a tutorial for a special text effect that has had loads of images of blending option settings? Ever found it annoying, confusing and time consuming? Well I for one have, and that's why all the text effects at apdz.com have layer styles included in them. Unfortunately not everyone knows how to use them or make them so that's what this little guide is here for.

Make A Base Layer Style

Making layer styles is easy. Saving is also easy but saving it in a way that is useful for others isn't always.

First of all we need to make a blank layer menu so that we can just save the layer style we want instead of saving it with all the default layer styles that photoshop comes with. To do this open the layer style menu if you don't already have it open by going to Window>Style and when the window shows up, delete all the styles in it apart from the first one which is a square with a red line going through it diagonally. We need this square since we can't save the layer style without it present. We should be left with a layer window something like this:

To save it, after you apply your settings, just press "New Style" as shown in the image below. Make sure the base style is loaded. (To load it, press the triangle button in the layer window and go to Replace Styles.. and load your base style up.

Also remember while saving your style to check the "Include layer blending options" mode since this is how new users can see the settings used to achieve the effect and learn from it. Although you can just as easily keep it unchecked to stop people from stealing the settings used to make the effect.