What are the different ways in which you can use a Smart Object for image manipulation? You can BLANK a Smart Object without editing your image pixels directly. Alternately, you can BLANK the Smart Object as a separate image even after placing it in a Photoshop image.

Work with Smart Objects

Layers

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Understand Smart Objects

Create embedded Smart Objects

Create Linked Smart Objects | Photoshop

Convert an embedded Smart Object to a Linked Smart Object

Filter the Layers panel by Smart Objects | Photoshop

Duplicate an embedded Smart Object

Edit the contents of a Smart Object

Replace the contents of a Smart Object

Convert an embedded or linked Smart Object to layers

Rasterize an embedded or linked Smart Object

Export the contents of an embedded Smart Object

Applies to: Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop CS6

Last Published: Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Understand Smart Objects

Smart Objects are layers that contain image data from raster or vector images, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files. Smart Objects preserve an image's source content with all its original characteristics, enabling you to perform nondestructive editing to the layer.

In Photoshop, you can embed the contents of an image into a Photoshop document. In Photoshop, you can also create Linked Smart Objects whose contents are referenced from external image files. The contents of a Linked Smart Object are updated when its source image file changes.

Linked Smart Objects are distinct from duplicated instances of a Smart Object within a Photoshop document. With Linked Smart Objects, you can use a shared source file across multiple Photoshop documents which is a familiar and welcome concept for web designers.

Smart Object benefits

With Smart Objects, you can:

● Perform nondestructive transforms. You can scale, rotate, skew, distort, perspective transform, or warp a layer without losing original image data or quality because the transforms don't affect the original data.

●Work with vector data, such as vector artwork from Illustrator, that otherwise would be rasterized in Photoshop.

●Perform nondestructive filtering. You can edit filters applied to Smart Objects at any time.

●Edit one Smart Object and automatically update all its linked instances.

●Apply a layer mask that's either linked or unlinked to the Smart Object layer.

●Try various designs with low-resolution placeholder images that you later replace with final versions.

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