Thanks for the reply! What I understand and don't, maybe it'll be easier for others....
- I get this stuff. A pallete is good cause the definition exists outside of image software. I figured out the layers thing pretty easily too.
From your description, I'm imagining a channel to be a way to allow bright and dark to flow through the layers underneath the channel. If the channel is really dark, the only the darkest parts of the layers beneath it get through. Vice versa for really light. This doesn't have to be an exhaustive definition, just a concept. Am I wrong?Channel = a special type of layer made of a black and white image. Channels are created by creating a selection, and then using the Selection->To Channel menu item. Channels are one way to quickly create a mask.
Layer Mask = a modifier to a layer that "masks" out part of an image from showing(see my sig for a tutorial on layer masks)This makes a lot more sense. Somehow, you saying that a layer mask indeed partially masks a layer put two and two together in my mind. I told you I was new at this, heh.
So I'm guessing I just didn't have it selected. I'll go back and give it another shot, thanks for the post!For the invert, it is only available if you have a layer or a channel selected. If there is no selection, it has no way to know what to invert.