v0.37.0-alpha — Reference layers inside an edit
Pre-release
Bring something in from another layer while you edit — and switching presets no longer leaves the wrong model selected.
New: reference layers inside an edit
In Edit Image with Qwen-Image 2.1, a new Reference layers list takes up to four extra layers or canvases. Name them in the prompt as <image2>, <image3>… — the layer you're editing is <image1> — and pull their content in:
- "put the woman from
<image2>into this mountain scene" - "replace the cart in
<image1>with the teapot from<image2>"
Each reference keeps its own transparency, so cut-out products and people drop in cleanly. It works with a captured layer, the canvas, or a selection — combined with Capture Selection, the new object lands only inside your selection, as its own layer, with no visible seam. About 70 seconds for a selection edit with one reference on a 12 GB card.
Fixed
- Switching presets now switches the model too. Every diffusion-model preset shares one model list, and the panel used to keep the previously selected file — so you could end up running Qwen-Image 2.1 with a FLUX.2 Klein model that it cannot load. Now a leftover from another preset is replaced by the new preset's own model, while a model of your own choosing is kept. This applied to every tool, not just Edit Image.
Known limitations
Reference layers need the Qwen-Image 2.1 edit preset, whose weights are research and evaluation only. Each reference adds about 30 seconds. The rest is in known limitations. Verified on Windows 11 with Photoshop 2025; macOS is untested.
Installing
Download openlayer-v0.37.0-alpha.ccx and double-click it; Photoshop lists it under Plugins › OpenLayer. If that does nothing, load openlayer-v0.37.0-alpha.zip through the UXP Developer Tool. You also need a local ComfyUI (0.37+ for Qwen-Image 2.1) and 8 GB of VRAM or more. Checksums are in checksums.txt.