While working with PhotoShop, you may have frequently used Fill and Opacity parameters. Sometimes, there seems no difference between Fill and Opacity parameters which makes them much confusing for beginners.

It’s quite difficult for beginners to figure out how Fill and Opacity works. So, in this tutorial, we’re going to learn the difference between Opacity and Fill.

Difference Between Opacity and Fill in PhotoShop

To figure out the difference between Fill and Opacity, let’s start with an experiment:

Step 1:

Let’s setup the file first. Create a new layer and make a selection area using Rectangular Marquee Tool. Now fill the selection with any color, I am using green color.

Step 2:

Now, double click on the layer or click on the fx icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel and add a layer style, I am using two layer styles, Drop Shadow and Stroke.

Step 3:

Now put down the layer’s Opacity parameter to some lower value and notice how Opacity of the whole layer decreased including the object and the Layer Styles applied to it.

Step 4:

Let’s try Fill this time, before doing so put the Opacity parameter back to 100%. Now decrease the Fill parameter value a bit, notice the opacity of the object is decreasing but the layer styles are remained unaffected.

Now, we can easily conclude that the Opacity parameter controls the opacity of whole layer including pixels and Layer Styles whereas Fill Parameter is meant for the opacity of pixels but not for Layer Styles.