Layer Stacking and Transparency in Graphic Design: A Comprehensive Guide

In this video, we'll be discussing layer stacking as well as transparency. So, first, let's bring our attention to layer stacking.

As we can see here, we have our final layer with eight different icons, each within the layer. However, in addition to each of these icons being displayed in this order, this is also the stacking order in which these items are shown.

So, while they don’t overlap, the gear icon is actually stacked on top of the lock, which is on top of the Wi-Fi.

To show this more concretely, we’re simply going to add a rectangle that covers all eight of these layers.

To do this, we’ll select the Rectangle Tool. Instead of this layer being white, let’s change the fill by double-clicking. In this case, I’m going to select green.

However, you can select whatever color you prefer, and we’ll click OK.

Next, we’ll click and drag a rectangle over all eight of our icons.

We’ll see that our rectangle covers all eight of our icons.

Additionally, as we click on our rectangle icon in the Layers panel and move it, shown by the blue lines into different places, we’ll see that it actually shows up beneath the Wi-Fi, lock, and gear icons. As we move it around, we’ll see that it’s stacked between the layers depending on the order.

Let’s move our rectangle all the way to the bottom of our final layer, and this brings us to transparency.

As we can see, some of our icons don’t have any problem being transparent and showing the green background.

In the future, we’ll want all of our icons to be transparent so that we can see whatever background they’re placed upon.

In the case of our magnifying glass, we don’t want to show a white center. Instead, our magnifying glass should only be black with a transparent middle so we can see whatever’s behind it.

So, let’s change our transparency by modifying our fill.

To do this, we’ll use the Selection Tool (V on the keyboard), and we’ll select our magnifying glass.

With the entire magnifying glass selected, we’ll click on the fill, which is set to 'question mark, ' and we’ll simply click 'None.'

Therefore, the entire object has no fill and a black stroke.

We can do the same thing with our cloud by selecting it, and with 'Fill' on top, we’ll simply select 'None.'

Again, we’ve now made this transparent in the middle.

For our lock icon, if we click on it, we don’t want to change the fill of all these shapes to transparent because we still want the keyhole to be black.

This is why we see question marks, because sometimes the fill is white, sometimes it’s black, depending on the object.

Instead, let’s zoom in, and we want to only select the top where the bar goes across and the lock itself.

To do this, we’ll double-click to go into Isolation Mode, and we’ll select the top shape. Then, holding Shift, we’ll select the bottom square.

We can see that it’s currently set to a white fill and black stroke, and we’ll simply change this to 'None' for the top fill color.

Finally, we have one more icon to go.

Let’s double-click outside to exit Isolation Mode, and let’s zoom in on our network.

If we scroll to the right, holding CTRL on the keyboard, and select this object, the only fill within this object is white, so we can change it to have no fill among all the shapes.

However, we see that we have a bit of difficulty here because the lines still run through it, and the white was actually covering the insides of those lines, which we don’t want showing.

Let’s zoom in and see what we can do here.

To remove these lines, what we actually want to do is shorten them so that they’re only on the segments between our circles.

First, let’s start by selecting the first line, double-clicking to go into Isolation Mode, and selecting this first line. Then, simply drag the anchor point along the same pink line path until we’ve reached the edge of our circle.

We’ll do the same on the bottom-right side, clicking the anchor point and dragging along the pink line until it intersects. Then, we’ll do the same thing with our other line.

Click and drag, then click and drag.

We’ve now fixed the lines from being in the middle outer circles; however, we still need to remove them from the center.

More specifically, we want one line per circle.

We’ll have one on top, one on the left, one on the bottom-left, and one on the bottom-right.

While we could adjust these lines individually or redraw them, an easier way might be to select both lines, holding Shift to select both, then hit CTRL + C to copy both lines, and then CTRL + Shift + V to paste both lines in place.

We now have two lines from the top-left to the bottom-right, and two lines from the top-right to the bottom-left.

Let’s change each of these lines so that they form the connections between the circles.

First, let’s drag the bottom-left line from that circle to connect to the center circle. While it doesn’t look like it’s changed anything, we now have one small path here. Next, we’ll drag the other path, which extends the entire distance along the same path line, connecting to the circle, and we’ll see we’ve created our two necessary lines.

We’ll do the same thing with the other path, clicking and dragging it to intersect between these two circles, then clicking and dragging it to intersect between these two circles. There we have it.

We’ve now created a fully transparent icon.

If we exit Isolation Mode, we’ll see that we can now see the background.

Additionally, if your gear icon isn’t transparent, you can simply click on each individual shape, or the entire group of shapes, and change it so that it has no fill.

Let’s now save our work using CTRL + S to save, and in the next video, we’ll begin working on our wrenches icon.

See you there!