What are Smart Objects?

When you scale or rotate a picture, a lot of quality is lost.
From Photoshop CS2, we have the ability to make smart objects.
When you see a picture after you make it smaller and increase it again to its original size, the best picture quality remains with “Smart Objects”.

The difference is clearly visible in the figure above. Left, you have an image that is reduced and then increased again as a normal layer. Right, you have the same image with the same operations performed, but as a “Smart Object”.

“Smart Objects” can be recognized by the little icon at the bottom right of the layer icon.
This icon means that you have linked that particular layer to a Smart Object.
Double clicking on this icon opens the file which is linked in Photoshop.
And when I say “linked,” I do not mean the original, not the one that is on your hard drive, I mean the file that Photoshop automatically created and inserted.
When you double click, a dialog box appears stating that you must save the file when you make changes. Click OK to accept.
You edit this file, then this change is made to the copy of the file in Photoshop, that is the layer with the “Smart Object”.
You have to save this file by clicking “File” – “Save” from the menu bar.
Or close this file, and answer positively to the message that you want to save this change.
This file name is same as the name of the layer with the Smart Object in Photoshop.
Changes are only applied to the linked file, not on the original of the linked file.
I hope that brings some clarity to the image below:

Insert Smart Objects

We have two ways to create “Smart Objects”.
The first is to insert the object in your image.
Just click on “File” – “Place” the menu bar. The file you added will automatically be a “Smart Object”.
The second possibility is to right-click the layer of a previously inserted image and select “Convert to Smart Object” from the dropdown menu.
When you choose the first option, the new Photoshop layer gets the name of the file that you’ve inserted.

Copy Smart Objects

To copy “Smart Objects”, we have two choices.
The first is to right-click the layer with the Smart Object to copy and select “Duplicate Layer” from the dropdown menu.
The second way is to click on “Layer” – “Smart Objects” – “New Smart Objects by Copy” in the menu bar.
If you choose the first way, then any change you make in the linked file, are applied to all of the copied layers.
If you choose the second way, then this change will only be applied to the layer that was selected. In other words this way, each copy is unique.

Replace Smart Objects

To replace a “Smart object” by another click “Layer” – “Smart Objects” – “Replace Contents” in the menu bar.
You select the file in the dialog and click “Place”.

Nested Smart Objects

As an example, I go to my first layer which is deformed with the “Warp” Tool.
If you do not know how to, choose “Edit” – “Transform” – “Warp” in the menu bar.
When you do this, you only distort the “Smart Object” in the layer, not the “Smart Object” file itself.

Now to add a “Smart Object” into another “Smart Object”, this is called a nested “Smart Object”, double click the “Smart Object” icon.
This opens the file already created for the “Smart Object”.
Click “File” – “Place” in the menu bar.
In the dialog, select the file you want to nest as a “Smart Object” in the first “Smart Object”.
Click the “Place” button and click OK.
You can always determine the size and location of this new Smart Object in the first Smart Object.
Close all files of Smart Objects and you see that the shape of the nested file was altered.

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