LayerUtility: ImageBlend

This is the workhorse. When you just want to stack one image on top of another - with a blend mode, some opacity, maybe a mask - this is the node. Photoshop's Layers panel, minus the panel. Background goes in, layer goes on top, out comes the merged result.

Reach for it whenever you're compositing: dropping a cutout onto a new scene, overlaying a texture, laying a generated element over a plate. It's the simplest member of the pack's blend family, and simple is the point. If you don't need to move, scale, or rotate the top layer, you don't need the Advance version - you need this.

How it works

It aligns the layer image over the background and combines them pixel-for-pixel according to the blend mode, scaled by opacity, and clipped by the optional mask. Where the mask is present, the layer shows; where it isn't, the background does. That's the whole model.

One thing to know up front: this node doesn't transform the layer. It expects the layer to already be the size and position you want. It won't scale a small overlay up to fill the frame or move it around - for that you want ImageBlendAdvance. ImageBlend is the "these two are already aligned, just merge them" tool.

The inputs and outputs that matter

• blend_mode - 19 modes: normal, multiply, screen, add, difference, the usual suspects. normal for a straight overlay, multiply to drop a shadow/texture into the darks, screen for glows and light leaks.
• opacity (0–100) - how strongly the layer applies. Your fade knob.
• invert_mask (default true) - flips which side of the mask counts as the layer. If your overlay shows up in the negative space, toggle this.
• background_image, layer_image, optional layer_mask - the two images and the cutout shape.

Output: one merged image.

How to install it

It comes with the LayerStyle pack. In ComfyUI Manager, search LayerStyle, install, restart. Manual route:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/chflame163/ComfyUI_LayerStyle
pip install -r ComfyUI_LayerStyle/requirements.txt

then restart. It lives under 😺dzNodes → LayerUtility. No model downloads for this one.

Common issues & troubleshooting

The layer is in the wrong place or the wrong size. ImageBlend doesn't reposition anything. If the overlay is bigger than the background or offset, fix that before it gets here - run LayerImageTransform first, or switch to ImageBlendAdvance, which has scale/rotate/position built in.

Mask looks inverted. invert_mask again. LayerStyle's polarity convention catches people constantly; the fastest debug is just to flip it and re-run.

Fewer blend modes than you expected. This base node ships 19 modes. If you specifically want the full Photoshop set (dissolve, color burn, linear light, and the rest - 30 in total), that lives on the Advance blend nodes, which use a heavier blend-mode library.

The node isn't in the menu. That means the pack didn't import. LayerStyle's most common failure is a broken transformers dependency (often a stray TensorFlow) crashing the whole pack on load. Check the console traceback, use Manager's "Try Fix," or repair the named library.