Previewing with Photoshop Layers

You can avoid Web programming with a simple trick: use Photoshop layers to construct a model of your design. Photoshop offers layers as a new feature in version 3. You can stack images on top of each other, and besides the least one (called background layer), all the layers behave like transparencies: their transparent parts reveal the layer underneath them.

To view your design with layers, follow the steps listed bellow:

1. Load your background pattern in the background layer. If you are using a tiling pattern, you have to cut and paste it all over the background layer.
2. Create a new layer on top of the background layer and load your graphics design into it. Mark and move it to the appropriate places.
3. Create a third layer on top of the second layer and use it to place text samples in typical font sizes around your design.

Now you can get a better feeling for the color composition and potential problems with your designs. Saving the image as a flattened image in a common graphics format to send it to the client for discussion is another useful option.