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I have a number of layers in a Photoshop document.

I want to find out what a specific layer's width and height is. How do I do that?

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    My god how embarrassing it is for Adobe that people actually have to ask these basic things about Photoshop. And even more embarrassing that as a professional user of many other tools (even from Adobe) I and 63000 others have to search for it online. Adobe isn't friends with usability apparently. – Slava Apr 1 '15 at 12:31
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Option 1.

I have an action that does this:

Cmd+A, Cmd+C, Cmd+N

When I run this action I'm left with New document window. The width and height in the window are the clipboard image dimensions = your objects/layers dimensions.

You then can press Esc to close the window.

( On windows just think of the Cmd as Ctrl )

Option 2.

You can make a selection of the layer for example by ctrl or cmd clicking the layer thumbnail and then looking at the info panel F8, it will show you the dimensions of the selection.

enter image description here

From the upper right corner where you can see the arrow pointing down, you can find the options and within there you can set the ruler unit to pixels or what ever you want it to show.

Option 3.

Use Free transform Ctrl+T and when free transform is active, go check the Info panel F8 as shown above. This works even if the object is outside the document area.

Here's another answer that is slightly related: How to measure the distances in .psd

Especially the bottom part of the answer that lists methods to exporting layer styles as css, which includes width and height, of course.

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  • I tried all your method, but seems that all of them could only give out document dimension (canvas size?), not dimension of a particular layer (I had that particular layer selected) – Philip007 Mar 30 '13 at 19:45
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    @Philip007 Are you sure your layer is not the same size as your document? – Joonas Mar 31 '13 at 0:42
  • Now I understand what's happening: the "naughty" layer is a smart object before I tried check its dimension. With layers not being turned into smart object, your methods totally work – Philip007 Mar 31 '13 at 18:37
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    @Philip007 Well, I'm not sure I understand what is happening. Smart object should be just as easy to measure with these methods as a raster layer. Sometimes a smart object might even be better. For example: If you have layer style Drop shadow applied to your layer, the shadow won't be included to the dimensions. If however you use smart object or rasterize the layer style, then you'll be able to measure the layer with the shadow included. – Joonas Mar 31 '13 at 21:06
  • Thanks for the drop shadow tip:) As for dimension, assume the layer is a smart object, cmd-T and cmd-click layer thumbnail will show different width and height in Info panel, provided that canvas size and smart object size are indeed different. I can't remember which shows what though, you can have a try – Philip007 Mar 31 '13 at 23:24
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For anyone who wants to grab width/height in a single click and copy it, I created a script (based on this answer). You can bind the script to a hotkey too, as described below.

Step 1: Save the script

Copy the code below and save it in a file named "getLayerSize.jsx". If using Notepad, save the file WITH the double quotes.

function getLayerSizeToCopy(){
    var layer = activeDocument.activeLayer; //Grab the currently selected layer

    // Calculate length and width based on the rectangular bounds of the selected layer
    var length = layer.bounds[2]-layer.bounds[0]; //Grab the length
    var width = layer.bounds[3]-layer.bounds[1]; //Grab the width

    // Remove pixels from the length/width "200 px" => "200"
    length = length.toString().replace(' px', '');
    width = width.toString().replace(' px', '');

    prompt( "Layer Size: ", length + ", " + width );
}
getLayerSizeToCopy();

Step 2: Create an Action

Open the action menu if not already (Window > Actions). Create a group if you prefer. Add a new action, you can set an F-key here.

binding the action "Get Layer Size" to the key "F6"

Step 3: Record a macro that runs the script

Click "Record" to start recording events for the macro. Then run the script from File > Scripts > Browse. Once you run it, close the popup with width/height. Now stop recording.

Finished!

Test the macro by pressing the hotkey assigned, or run the macro manually. Hopefully it works!

Layer size of a polygon is displayed in a popup

Note: Photoshop may lag if you select a large number of layers or a large group, instead of a single layer. I don't know how to fix that, but just wait for a few moments and it should catch up.

Troubleshooting:

If you get a script error, check that a layer is selected and not a group or adjustment layer.

If you can't see the script for step 3, make sure the filetype is ".jsx". Windows might name it ".jsx.txt" which will count as a text file, and you won't see it.

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