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I'm guessing that the theory is that if you want a flattened version of your image you would export it to TIFF, JPEG, or whatever; otherwise, you would be saving in the native .apphoto format which will retain the layers. All that said, however, I, too, would like to have a flatten command.

 

Best regards,

AlanH

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Occasionally, you do want to flatten images when you don't need your layers any more, but still want to continue building on top of what you already did. Exporting and re-importing of course would be cumbersome for that.

 

An even more essential feature, though, is Photoshop's "Stamp Down" command (option+click on "Flatten Image", or Cmd+Option+Shift+E), which gives you a flattened copy as a layer on top of your existing layer stack. Most of the use cases for that are rooted in bad decisions on Adobe's part and could be avoided (such as having to create a flattened copy to be able to sharpen an image for output after retouching it, or needing a flattened image in order to be able to use Content Aware Fill), but it is still a very useful feature for other situations as well.

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An even more essential feature, though, is Photoshop's "Stamp Down" command (option+click on "Flatten Image", or Cmd+Option+Shift+E), which gives you a flattened copy as a layer on top of your existing layer stack. Most of the use cases for that are rooted in bad decisions on Adobe's part and could be avoided (such as having to create a flattened copy to be able to sharpen an image for output after retouching it, or needing a flattened image in order to be able to use Content Aware Fill), but it is still a very useful feature for other situations as well.

AP does provide Merge Visible which, to my understanding, does exactly what you are talking about. That is, it creates a merged layer at the top of the stack.

 

It also saves tiffs as flattened (which is very helpful to me as I am usually sending them back to my workflow tools which would not understand the layers anyway) so it prevents me from having to explicitly flatten the image. All of that having been said, I would also like a flatten command.

 

Has anyone added this as a Feature Request?

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As I understand it, “Merge Down” merges the current layer with the one directly below it, and “Merge Visible” creates a new layer with the contents of every layer that's visible.

 

What is required is something like “Merge Down All The Way”, to merge all the layers without creating a new one.

 

A “Flatten Layers” command would do the same, but would also remove the transparency (by using the current background colour).

 

I don't know why, but I need to remove transparent backgrounds surprisingly often, especially for web stuff. That's when a “Flatten Layers” command as described above would come in very handy. Right now I have to create a new layer, fill it with a colour and place it at the bottom of the stack.

 

Having said that, creating that background layer isn't a big deal, and why would you need to flatten everything when you can just use the export persona… Depends on how you work, I guess.

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Having said that, creating that background layer isn't a big deal, and why would you need to flatten everything when you can just use the export persona… Depends on how you work, I guess.

 

Everybody has different needs, of course. Why would I want to flatten layers while continuing to edit? Because when starting with a 120MB (or more) background layer, and then adding several adjustment layers along with a few pixel-based layers mushrooms my filesize to 1/2 - 3/4GB. Continuing an edit session at those file sizes really takes a toll on performance with my system. Therefore, when I notice things are getting slow I flatten all current layers and continue working. Certainly not a non-destructive workflow, but sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do. :)

 

Best regards,

AlanH

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  • 1 month later...

Yes please – I need a Flatten all. Wihtout a simple Flatten, some tasks are unecessarily complex. E.g., open an image of a diagram, erase some detail, and then flatten, so you can add to some other image. I do not want my erased holes anymore, I need that image to be flattend, so I can use it as one layer in another composition. My vote for Flatten.

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  • 8 months later...

I am confused. Is it that they don't realize the Flatten command is under the document menu, are they asking for it to be specifically under the Layers menu too, or are they asking for something different? 

The original comments are very old (March 2015 and earlier) and were written when there was no Flatten command in AP. The topic stopped generating comments when the Flatten command was added to the Documents menu item so I think everyone understands where it is now.

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The original comments are very old (March 2015 and earlier) and were written when there was no Flatten command in AP. The topic stopped generating comments when the Flatten command was added to the Documents menu item so I think everyone understands where it is now.

Apparently not everyone - I don't understand why it's not under Layer (it's more logical to me, but I can cope with it) - and you can bet I am not the only one out there :)

Besides that - nowhere in this thread was mentioned it's under Document, thus I feel right to mention. Search engines are still offering this thread quite on top (and I am pretty sure there are plenty of ppl who are glad to read solution).

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Apparently not everyone - I don't understand why it's not under Layer (it's more logical to me, but I can cope with it) - and you can bet I am not the only one out there :)

Besides that - nowhere in this thread was mentioned it's under Document, thus I feel right to mention. Search engines are still offering this thread quite on top (and I am pretty sure there are plenty of ppl who are glad to read solution).

I said it in the post you referenced - "when the Flatten command was added to the Documents menu item".

 

I do agree with you that the Flatten command seems more logical in the Layers area, but I have just added a keyboard shortcut so I don't worry about it.

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The original comments are very old (March 2015 and earlier) and were written when there was no Flatten command in AP. The topic stopped generating comments when the Flatten command was added to the Documents menu item so I think everyone understands where it is now.

 

Why would newbies or anyone else who's not needed it before now "understand where it is now"?  If there's any logic to putting a Layer Command under Documents instead of Layers, I fail to find it.  Things like this, small as they are, make it hard to get up to speed on a new program or on one that is constantly evolving and improving as this one is.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I can see the logic of putting Flatten in the Documents menu but leaving Merge in the Layers. Flatten is generally a destructive command that affects the entire document. It is definitely a bit tricky for those of us who are used to PS ;)

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