Photoshop - designing fonts in multiple layers

[KathG]

��...I have seen me on a bad day try to select copy or Ctrl/command A and nothing happens, stare at the screen only to realise several minutes later that I need to select all to be able to use the copy function. ...lol.

[best laid plans]

The best way to represent what your design will look like on a substrate is to create your artwork in photoshop (unless it is text heavy, in which case use Illustrator, indesign). When finished, save it. When saved "flatten" the image - layers, scroll down to the bottom where you will see the flatten option. Don't worry about the white background .... drag it onto the image of your substrate - mug, t-shirt, whatever. On your layer blending modes in the layers palette, change your design layer (the one you have dragged in) from "Normal" to "Multiply" and this is as good a representation as you are likely to get. the "multiply" option knocks out all the white areas on your layer.