About layer comps

Designers often create multiple compositions or comps of a page layout to show clients. Using layer comps, you can create, manage, and view multiple versions of a layout in a single Photoshop file.

A layer comp is a snapshot of a state of the Layers panel. Layer comps record three types of layer options:

Layer visibility—whether a layer is showing or hidden.
Layer position in the document.
Layer appearance—whether a layer style is applied to the layer and the layer’s blending mode.

Note: Unlike layer effects, Smart Filter settings cannot be changed across layer comps. Once a Smart Filter is applied to a layer, it appears in all layer comps for the image.

You can export layer comps to separate files, to a single PDF, or to a web photo gallery.

Choose Window > Layer Comps to show the panel.

Layer Comps panel

A.: Apply Layer Comp icon
B.: Last Document State
C.: Selected comps
D.: Layer Comp Cannot Be Fully Restored icon