Retaining layer styles in a text layer merge down

I created some text and added layer styles to it. However when I merge the text, first rasterizing then merge down, I lose the layer styles. The text goes to its original color and no shadow, no stroke, bevels or anything else.
on a Mac CS 5.5 OS 10.6.8
Thanks in advance

Hi,
If you view the image at 100% view (actual pixels) before rasterizing and merging, does that make a difference?

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Opacity & transparency related layer styles lost on rasterize/flatten/merge down (cs6)

So I'm working on a project and I'm making a button and I have come across an issue that I don't normally have with this particular button...I'm not sure why it's happening or how to fix it...but it's pretty annoying. I'm wondering if anyone can help out or if it's a known bug or anything like that!
So, I have three folders for the three different states, and within each folder are multiple layers, some with layer styles (it seems to be gradients that are playing up here, and opacity related), some with no layer styles but just lowered opacity. I need to flatten each of the folders to create the button sprites. The problem is...I go to flatten the folder and it appears to turn off any gradient related layer styles, and anything at a lowered opacity is ramped up to 100%. I tried going through and rasterizing the invidiual offending layers. Same problem. I tried creating blank layers and merging down the offending layers. Same problem.
I'm stumped! Image examples below:
This problem is messing with my mojo! Any help appreciated!! (and yes, my adobe is all patched up and updated)... I feel like I haven't had to deal with problems flattening transparency for many versions....

Generally speaking you can't expect to collapse groups of adjustment layers into a single layer and hope for much of anything useful to come of it.
If you've gotten Photoshop showing what you want to see, what's the problem with leaving the groups as they are, then just doing Save As (e.g., PNG) to store your work products?
Can you save a small PSD file and make it available online, so we can look carefully inside it to see what you're doing?
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I'm adjusting a photographic image and am using both a filter effect and a layer style in the same layer on a Smart Object. I want to separate the two effects into two layers, so one layer has the filter effect (Nik) and one layer has the layer style (Color Overlay) (with the goal of merging/rasterizing the Nik filter effect with the Smart Object but keeping the layer style unmerged). I can make two layers and move one effect without problem, but the visual result of each effect on a separate layer is quite different from having both effects in the same layer. The Blend Mode for all my layers is Normal. Within the Color Overlay panel, the blend mode is Linear Burn.
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looks very different from....
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If you want two separate layers, then on the duplicate layer with the Color Overlay layer style you might try different layer blending modes.
For example, below looks the same having the Color Overlay with linear burn on the second layer and changing the layers blend mode to Hue.
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(i deleted the previous post because of pilot error)
Message was edited by: R_Kelly

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I was just able to take the CS6 beta for another test run, and it seems the following ancient, but high-priority bug (at least for me) hasn't been addressed:
When saving large Photoshop documents (composites in resolutions like, say 7000x10000 pixels) to Photoshop PDF, certain layer styles are often not exported correctly when applied to text layers. The layer styles that are affected are those that render pixels that are then clipped inside the text, such as Gradient Overlay, Bevel & Emboss etc.
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Two possibilities: Pre-compose everything and fade the comp or use a second layer that has the layer styles, but in its Blending Options for the layer styles has set Fill opacity to zero, so only the styles are rendered, but not the source. Whjat you are seeing is normal behavior based on how styles are supposed to work. Whenever there is a non-zero (non-transparent) pixel, the get applied, where the pixels opacity acts as amultiplier for the style's intensity. Looks good for some, but often causes this popping appearance...
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Just downloaded CS6 Photoshop off the creative cloud and the merge layer command does not work. What is happening is there is one layer with a layer style then a shape layer and when I hit Cmd E it merges the layers but the layer style will not merge with it. I was chatting it up and everything they recommended did not work. It works on all my other co-workers computers and we are all on the cloud. I tried renaming pref. folder, settings folder, re-installing, holding down shft+option+cmd on start up. I also created a test account but that turned out to be a major inconvenience. Once logged into the account there is nothing there. The suggestions just started getting more ridiculous as chat proceeded. Nothing.
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Adobe customer portal is about worthless.

Get Rich or Die Tryin wrote:
Just downloaded CS6 Photoshop off the creative cloud and the merge layer command does not work. What is happening is there is one layer with a layer style then a shape layer and when I hit Cmd E it merges the layers but the layer style will not merge with it. I was chatting it up and everything they recommended did not work. It works on all my other co-workers computers and we are all on the cloud. I tried renaming pref. folder, settings folder, re-installing, holding down shft+option+cmd on start up. I also created a test account but that turned out to be a major inconvenience. Once logged into the account there is nothing there. The suggestions just started getting more ridiculous as chat proceeded. Nothing.
There are two merge layers type commands one is merge down involves only two layers and another that is merge visible layers. In my opinion there is a problem with the way merge down is implemented. When you use merge down if the bottom layer in the merge down has a layer style the merged layer also has this layer style attached. This means that pixels from the layer merged into it will be effected by this layer style. The result may well not look like the composite looked before the merge. The will also happen in CS5. Merge visibile layer works the correct way in my view as the merge progresses the top two layers are merge by applying any layer masks and layer styles first and merging the two layers the resulting layer has no layer masks and no layer style. This result is then merged with the next lower layer with its masks and style applied first. The result is a single layer without mask and style that looks like the original composite view. If your having the problem with CMD|CTRL+E and the result has a layer style try turning the layer style visibility off see if that helps. If it helps some backup to before the merge down use merge visible or first rasterzise the bottom layer to be merged.

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Beverly,
I can't imagine that another Beverly Schulz would be posting to this forum other than the one that teaches for ed2go. Since your name popped up here I want to take the opportunity to say that I took PSE5 Advanced and it was the best ever online class I have taken. The knowledge has served me well and I still refer to my notes.
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A former student,
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So I have this issue where I have to merge lots of layers in order to finish the job. Thing is that two of them have layer styles added to them. Each one has two different layers styles added to it. If I try to merge the layers, the effect won't stay the same and only one layer style will apply (and not even this one works correctly). Is there any cure for this? Thank you!

Here is how it looks before I merge the layers.
And here is how it looks after I merge the layers.
Why won't it stay the same?

A bug? Layer styles change or dissappear when you flatten/merge layers.

Does anyone else experience this problem in CS3?
An example for me would be,
right now I have an outer glow with noise applied to something but when I flatten the few layers I have in the file, the noise simply disappears or the glow becomes faded. With other layer styles, there might be a change, too, but usually the effect just weakens in color when i flatten the layers.
any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

I either used too many words or too few, but I'm not really sure.
The specific layer style combo and layer merge I am talking about is simpler than you might imagine..(see the pictures I posted of the results of the merge.)
Yellow outer glow at full opacity with 100% noise, merged down with a single layer. (and that single layer does not have anything other than a fill in it)
When i merge the two, (both blending modes are set to normal) the noise then disappears and the glow fades. It really does not have anything to do with how close or far away the "view" is.
Trust me, I tried it.
I even used a microscope and a telescope..
It doesn't change anything.
In other words, the layer styles always look okay regardless of how they are viewed, UNTIL you flatten or merge them.
So to finally answer Buko's question, the answer is no.
And I did actually take into consideration what D.Katz said about possible interference with the appearance.. view needing to be at 100 to even judge what's going on.
The problem I am experiencing only occurs the minute one layer combines with another layer that has a layer style(s).
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All text layers in my file is the same problem. The copy text layer is not available. But I can paste a layer style. I tried on another PSD and same thing. I reset my preferances folder and still no luck. This has happened to me once before, and I can't for the life of me remember what I needed to do to fix it. Anyone know the problem?
Thanks
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Win7 64
Message was edited by: f8saysso

Solved it myself and am posting the 'solution' for others that are not frequent users of PS..
I was trying to copy the font and color of my text to a bunch of other text layers. Come to find out that it's not possible (as far as I know) without doing the formatting using blending options. Instead, I used the regular text formatting tools. All's good now.

Retaining layer styles in a text layer merge down

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