NetImager Help
Introduction to Layers
Layers allow objects to be placed and arranged on top of each other within the editor. An example of a layer is an image layer, a text layer, or a shape. Layers are a very simple concept, but it is important that you are comfortable with the idea of layers.
Layer Example
The following screenshot shows an example image, with a base layer of a flower, a red rectangle shape layer in-front of the base layer, and a text layer on in-front of both layers. Note that the text layer is selected.
Layer Control
Each layer can be controlled independantly - such as resized, rotated, filter applied, brushed, erased. Each layer can be positioned, either by clicking on a layer and moving it with the mouse or the arrow keys on the keyboard. Image Layers can also be added such as adding a second image on top of an existing one.
Some operations can be applied to all layers (also refered to as the entire Image) at once - such as resize or rotate. This is the default option for these operations.
Applicable Buttons:
Add Image Layer
Other buttons such as Filters, and operations are covered later in their own sections.
Arranging Layers
Layers can be arranged - such as moving layers forward or back - moving them behind or in-front of each other. And ofcourse, Layers can be deleted from the canvas if required.
Move selected layer forward / up
Move selected layer back / down
Delete selected layer from the canvas
Saving Layer Information
Jpeg, BMP, PNG, and GIF image formats cannot preserve layer information - They are flat image formats. When you save an image as one of these formats, the image will be flattened - all layers will be flattened into one single layer. Unfortunately there are no standardised formats for a file type which can preserve editable layers.
As an alternative, the Editor has a proprietary image format (which only it can read). This file format preserves layers, so you can edit any layer in the image at a later stage. In the open / save dialog boxes, this is the ELIF format (Editable Layers Image Format)