Layer Styles Explained: Drop Shadow, Stroke, Glow and More

By Photoyam team Updated October 21, 2026 9 min read

A layer style is a set of effects, such as an outline, a shadow or a glow, that is attached to a layer instead of painted onto it. Change the text and the outline follows the new letters; dislike the shadow next week and you can soften it in seconds. This guide goes through every effect in the Layer Style dialog, the controls each one actually has, and four recipes with settings we tested on a real image.

What a layer style is, and why it beats painting effects by hand

A shadow faked from a blurred copy of your text stops matching the moment you fix a typo. A layer style is stored as settings on the layer and redrawn from the layer's current shape every time anything changes.

That makes styles non-destructive: the layer itself is never touched, and any effect can be switched off without losing its settings. Styles work on text layers, shape layers, smart objects and ordinary pixel layers, such as a product cut-out. A layer that carries at least one active effect shows a small fx badge on its row in the Layers panel.

Opening the Layer Style dialog

Select the layer first: styles always apply to the active layer. Then use any of these:

• Layer › Layer Style › Blending Options…, or an effect name such as Drop Shadow…, which opens that effect and switches it on.
• The fx button at the bottom left of the Layers panel.
• A double-click on the fx badge of a layer row.

The dialog has a list on the left and settings on the right. Each effect in the list has a checkbox: ticking it turns the effect on or off without forgetting its values. Clicking an effect's name shows its settings and also switches it on.

Every change previews live on the canvas. OK keeps the result. Cancel rolls back everything you changed since the dialog opened, so it is safe to experiment.

The ten effects and the controls they really have

The list follows Photoshop's order, with simpler controls. Most effects have a Blend Mode menu with a color swatch, Opacity and Size (softness). Sizes and distances are in document pixels.

The mode in brackets is the default. A new Drop Shadow starts black at 50% opacity, Size 8, Distance 6 and Angle 135°, which puts the shadow below and to the right, as if lit from the upper left. A new Stroke is black, 3 px, Outside.

Use Global Light appears on Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow and Bevel & Emboss and is off by default. Tick it on several effects and their Angle sliders all control one document-wide light direction: move it on one layer and the shadows and bevels on every layer that opted in follow, so all shadows fall the same way.

Blending Options, Fill and Opacity

The top entry, Blending Options, holds the layer's own settings: Blend Mode, Opacity, Fill, Knockout (None, Shallow, Deep) and the Blend If sliders, which hide parts of the layer based on its own brightness or the brightness of the layers below. Opacity and Fill are also on the Layers panel.

Opacity fades the layer and all of its effects together. Fill fades the layer's own pixels but not every effect, and here Photoyam differs from Photoshop. Fill fades the layer together with the effects drawn on top of it: the three overlays, Satin, Inner Glow, Inner Shadow and Bevel. Drop Shadow, Outer Glow and an Outside or Center stroke are drawn behind the layer as solid copies of its shape, so at Fill 0% they show through the now-empty letters. An Inside stroke is drawn over the edge and stays crisp. For hollow outline text, use Fill 0% with an Inside stroke.

Step by step: bold sticker text with a stroke and shadow

This is the “GOLDEN HOUR” title in the first screenshot: white letters, a dark outline and a soft shadow that lifts them off a busy sky.

1. Open the photo. In the editor, use File › Open… (Ctrl+O, Cmd+O on a Mac).
2. Type the text. Press T for the Text tool, click on the photo and type. Pick a heavy font in the Character panel; the example uses Arial Black at 110 px in white on a 1200 × 800 image.
3. Add the stroke. Choose Layer › Layer Style › Stroke… and leave Position on Outside, set Width to 8 and pick a dark color taken from the photo. A deep purple (#2a1a4a) sits more naturally on this sunset than pure black.
4. Add the drop shadow. Click Drop Shadow in the list on the left. Set Opacity 60, Size 14, Distance 10 and Angle 120 with the same dark purple.
5. Confirm with OK. The layer gets an fx badge.
6. Edit it later. Double-click the fx badge to reopen the dialog, or retype the words with the Text tool. The effects follow the new letters automatically.
7. Save and export. Use File › Save As Project (.psy) to keep the styles editable, and File › Export As › PNG or JPG for a flat image to share.

More recipes: captions, hollow text, neon, product shadows

A caption that stays readable on any photo

For small text, a Drop Shadow with Distance 0 beats a heavy outline: it becomes a soft dark halo around the letters. Start with black at Opacity 70–80 and Size around 20, then raise Size until the busy background behind the words calms down.

Hollow outline text

Turn off any Drop Shadow, set Fill to 0% (in Blending Options or the Layers panel), and add a white Stroke with Position: Inside and Width 5. With Outside or Center the letters stayed solid, for the reason explained above.

Neon glow

Neon is a near-white core with colored light around it. The “open late” text uses a very pale pink (#fff0fa) and three effects: Outer Glow in hot pink (#ff2fb0) at Opacity 100 and Size 20, Inner Glow in a softer pink (#ff7fd0) at Opacity 80 and Size 10, and a 2 px pink Outside stroke to define the tube edge.

One trap: Outer Glow defaults to Screen, which can only lighten. Over a bright, warm sky our pink glow almost disappeared. Switching its Blend Mode to Normal and moving the text over the darker water fixed it.

A soft shadow under a product cut-out

On a cut-out product, a Drop Shadow stops it looking pasted on. Reasonable starting points are a low Opacity (30–45), a large Size (25–40) and a short Distance (8–15) in a dark warm gray; Angle 90° puts the shadow straight below. A shadow stretched along the floor needs its own painted layer.

Copy, paste, clear and presets

Styles are easy to move around. Layer › Layer Style › Copy Layer Style copies every effect of the active layer, and Paste Layer Style puts them on another layer, replacing its old style. Clear Layer Style removes all effects. All three are also in a layer's right-click menu.

To reuse a look in later projects, click Save Preset at the bottom of the Layer Style dialog; presets appear in the Apply preset… menu. They are stored in this browser only.

What survives saving and exporting

• Photoyam project (.psy): everything stays live, including effects, Fill, Blend If and the text itself.
• PNG, JPG, WebP: the image is flattened, so the effects look exactly as on screen but are no longer editable.
• PSD: File › Export As › PSD keeps separate layers, but each is written as pixels with its effects drawn in, so the shadow cannot be tweaked in Photoshop and text arrives as pixels. Effects in a PSD from Photoshop are not rebuilt as editable styles either.

Troubleshooting

I changed the settings but nothing happens

The effect's checkbox is probably off, or a different layer is active. Check the highlighted row in the Layers panel, then make sure the effect is ticked in the dialog's list.

The glow is invisible

A Screen glow cannot show on a background that is already lighter than the glow color. Switch the glow to Normal, pick a more saturated color, or move the text over a darker area.

FAQ