A popular high -end image editor for the Macintosh and windows from Adobe. The original Mac versions were the first to bring affordable image editing down to the personal computer level in the late 1980s. Since then, Photoshop has become the defacto standard in image editing. Although in contains a large variety of images editing features, one of Photoshop's most powerful capabilities is layers, which allows images to read from and convert to a raft of graphics formats, but uses its own native format for layers (.PSD extension). See Photoshop plug-in and Photoshopped.
Layers Are Often Essential
It would be extremely difficult to develop the CD-ROM jewel case cover below without layers. If only one layer were availble, each and every image element would have to be aligned perfectly on top of the existing image. There would be no way to change the placement because each piece becomes merged into a single bitmapped image, replacing what was previously there. Without having all elements in view and being able to move them around in different ways, it would be virtually impossible to derive the most pleasing effect.
