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 create smart objects.

When a picture is reduced and enlarged again to its original format, the picture quality remains the best with Smart Objects.

The difference is clearly visible in the figure above. On the right, you have an image that was reduced and then increased again as a regular layer. On the left, you have the same image with the same operations performed, but as a Smart Object.

Smart Objects can be recognized by the small icon (1) right underneath 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 this to 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.

When you edit this file, the 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 in the menu bar. Or close this file, and answer positively to the question whether you want to save this change. The name of the Smart Object layer is the name of the file in the Photoshop. Changes are only applied to the linked file, not on the original of the linked file.

Insert Smart Object

We have several ways to create Smart Objects.

The first is to insert the object in your image. Just click on File – “Place” in the menu bar. The file you add 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” in the drop-down menu.

When you choose the first option, a new Photoshop layer is created with the name of the file that you’ve inserted.

A third possibility, and new in Photoshop CS5, is to insert the picture directly from the Windows Operating System. This we had seen in Lesson 51.

Copying Smart objects

To copy Smart Objects, we have two choices.

The first is to select the layer with the Smart Object by right clicking the layer and selecting “Duplicate Layer” from the drop-down menu.

The second way is to click on Layer – “Smart Objects” – “New Smart Object via 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 add a layer, I draw a custom shape.

Then I go to this layer and apply transformation. I choose Edit – “Transform” – “Distort” in the menu bar. When you do this, youonly distort the Smart Object 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 icon of the Smart Object. This opens the file that is already created for the Smart Object.

Click File – “Place” in the menu bar.

In the dialog, select the file you want as a nested Smart Object in the first Smart Object.
Click the “Place” button, and click OK.

You can always determine the size and location of the 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.

New since CS4

New since CS4 is that when you apply a mask to a smart object, this mask is linked to the Smart Object.
This is useful, for example, if the position of the mask in the image is moved.

To disconnect, click the icon. But I think you know that already.

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