Does a PSD Group Adjustment Affect the Background Outside It?

An exported UI group looks right on its own, but the complete Photoshop mockup has a different background color. First check whether an adjustment in the group reaches artwork outside it. This comparison assumes an unclipped adjustment with no masking at the sample points.

Build a two-part fixture

Keep an opaque blue plate below and outside the group. Inside, place a colored button on the left half of the canvas and add a Hue/Saturation adjustment above it. Leave the adjustment unclipped with a white mask. Duplicate the document. Set the group to Pass Through in one copy and Normal in the other. Leave opacity, layer order and color settings alone.

Sample the uncovered plate and the button

Export a complete reference from each document. The uncovered plate can change under Pass Through because the adjustment can reach layers below the group. In Normal, the group is composited first and the uncovered plate should retain its color. The button itself can change in both copies. If neither sample moves, check masking, clipping and whether the adjustment shifts the chosen color enough.

Deliver the right boundary

Use the PSD layer exporter to prepare the layers, then compare them with the full reference on the target background. For fixed art, deliver a composite with clear bounds and keep the editable source. If the background changes at runtime, deliver a self-contained button and document any adjustment the game must reproduce. A layer PNG alone cannot establish which outside pixels the original group affected.