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Photoshop Smart Objects

What are smart objects and how smart are they?

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Adobe introduced Smart Objects (a non-destructive, Image-editing system) in Photoshop CS2. Essentially, Smart Objects are containers that hold original-image data inside a Photoshop layer. Smart Objects may include digital-photograph (raw) images, illustrator vector art or other Photoshop data. Once set, see smart-object files as links to other files, except the content truly resides within the Photoshop document.
Smart Objects allows you to place external-based images (Illustrator-based, for example) into your Photoshop document and retain complete edit capabilities of the original content. It doesn’t require you to keep track of the externally linked files, which, I think, is pretty smart. Smart Objects also allows you to non-destructively transform distortions and apply numerous filters, which is even smarter.
You can open raw images in Photoshop as Smart Object files, which preserves the original raw data.
From Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), hold the shift key down to change the “Open Image” option to “Open Smart Object”. This opens the image in Photoshop, sans full pixel data.
Double click on a raw, smart-object layer in Photoshop to open the image within ACR, which is an internal, integrated plugin. Photoshop’s ACR allows you to non-destructively edit raw data. (If you edit raw photographic images within Photoshop, you’ll understand this, because ACR automatically opens in the internal plug-in.)

Illustrator art
You can copy and paste Adobe Illustrator-created art into Photoshop as a smart object, or place it into Photoshop using the File>Place command. Both techniques create a Smart Objects container for your Illustrator content.
Double click on the smart-object layer to open its contents within the Illustrator application. Changes made to the Smart-Object-based Illustrator art only change the art within Photoshop. They don’t change the original Illustrator file.
You can apply most of Photoshop’s filter offerings to an Illustrator-based smart object. For example, you can apply a Gaussian Blur to Illustrator-created vector art and retain full vector-edit capabilities. The smart-object layer can be scaled, skewed and distorted endlessly, without degradation, even after you’ve applied the blur.

Photoshop content
You can convert any Photoshop-layer content to a smart object. Select a layer or multiple layers, then tag Layer>smart object>Convert to Smart Objects. This action installs the original content into a protective, Smart Objects container. Double click on the smart-object’s layer to open the original layer’s content.
You can make any type of Photoshop content into a smart object. For example, you can create a text layer, convert the text to a smart object, and then apply various Photoshop filters. The filters are not permanent, and the text remains editable. If you misspell a word, or your client wants copy changes, you don’t have to start over.
Further, you can change a font style without redoing all of the filter steps. To open the original text layer, double click on the smart-object text layer.
Image layers that have been converted to smart objects can be scaled, skewed, warped and distorted, without damaging the pixels, because the original data is contained within the protective container.

Place holders
Smart Objects files are great for processing designs that contain low-resolution comp similes that will eventually be replaced with hi-res images. For example, you can add a low-res comp image to your Photoshop design as a regular layer, scale it to the full-image size, and then convert the image to a smart-object layer. You can rotate, filter, mask and color adjust the layer as needed. When the full-resolution image becomes available, simply double click on the smart object and replace the contents with the high-res image. All of the edits made to the original (low-res) smart object will remain.
You can apply most Photoshop filters to smart objects (Adobe continues to expand its list). Filters applied to smart-object files are non-destructive and offer flexibility that’s not available when you apply filters to standard, pixel layers.

Working with Smart Objects filters
To change any settings without starting over, double click on a smart-object filter to return to the filter-dialog box.
For blend-mode options, double click on the icon to the right of the Smart Objects filter. To extend the creative possibilities, apply any layer-blend mode to a smart-object filter. You can also apply multiple filters to the same smart object, and you can rearrange the filter stacking order.
The smartest filter option is the ability to mask a filter because it allows you to create realistic, spatial, drop shadows — those that become softer as they drop away from the primary subject. Do this to create an effect where a shadow begins sharp, but gradually softens: Create a new layer and paint or draw a cast shadow; convert the shadow layer to a smart object and then add a substantial Gaussian blur and, finally, add a gradient mask to the filter.

File output and printing
Remember, Smart Objects files remain fully editable only within Photoshop. You can scale and distort smart objects indefinitely, without degradation, while working within Photoshop, but all Smart Objects content converts to raster data when output. This is true even for Photoshop PDFs. There is no way to retain vector data within a smart object when it’s output.

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