I'm using a few layer styles for an image to sort of create metal effects and shine. On this particular example I have 8 effects being used, but they are making the file crazy big, in terms of file size. Normally (without the layer styles) the file size is about 6MB, but when I add my styles the size jumps up to >20MB, and this is a rather small file, so the insane growth of files on my much larger files becomes a real issue.
What is Photoshop possibly doing with 7 effects that it makes the file size so big? Is it saving every possible combination of the effects to make turning them on and off faster? If that's the case, is there a way to disable that?
If it's not any of these, I would to get some advice on what I can do to make these files just much more manageable. I tried the "Solid color on the top layer" trick, but that's way too tedious, plus it breaks my image previews (which I actually need for other reasons).