6 ways to duplicate a layer in Photoshop
by September 28, 2010 7:54 pm 55,867 views11
As always there are several different methods of duplicating a layer in Photoshop. You will normally have a preferred way of working in photoshop, so choose whichever way fits in with your current processes the best. There is no right and wrong way, there are in fact 6 ways!
Please note: All the methods describe below involve having the layer that you want to duplicate selected in the layers palette as an initial step.
1.
Right click the layer in the layers palette and choose duplicate layer from the drop down list that appears.

2.
Click the layer options (top right on the layers palette) and choose duplicate layer.

3.
Drag the layer onto the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette.

4.
Go to the top menu and choose Layer > Duplicate layer

5.
With the marquee, lasso or crop tool selected right click the canvas and choose duplicate layer.

6.
Press Ctrl + J / Apple + J

marilia February 14, 2013 at 6:42 am
Thank you very much, exactly what I was looking, the last topic! Thanks.
hannah February 14, 2013 at 8:54 am
Thanks for your comment. Glad you found it useful 🙂
mira July 9, 2013 at 1:51 am
Thank you, it’s very handy 🙂
aaa October 1, 2014 at 3:42 am
nice
sjna May 11, 2017 at 9:02 am
7. ctrl+alt and drag the layer
Chris January 2, 2018 at 1:44 am
Thanks a lot for the advice, really helpful!!
hannah August 4, 2018 at 9:48 pm
Glad it helped. Thanks for your comments.
MrJanus August 24, 2018 at 2:33 pm
To duplicate a layer on the PC, I use Alt + Cursor key on the selected layer, then nudge it back using the opposite cursor key. So if I use Alt + Cursor up, then I hit cursor down to put it back in the right place. It probably sounds long-winded but it’s now part of my natural workflow, so it seems a really quick way to do it. Just thought I would add it because it isn’t mentioned here.
maxart November 3, 2018 at 2:33 am
Thanks a lot
hannah December 13, 2018 at 8:45 pm
That’s great, thanks for adding your method. I wasn’t aware of that one.