Written by Scott

Photoshop introduced a great little feature awhile back in CS2 called Smart Objects. This handy little feature was ignored by yours truly at first. Then I began to understand the power behind this little gem.

You see, one problem in Photoshop has been its destructive nature. I don’t mean it runs around like a hyper 5-month old German Shepherd puppy, knocking things over. Instead, when you made transformations to a layer, the effect permanently altered the pixels in that layer.

Non-destructive editing is when you make alterations to a reference file and the original is left untouched.

With Smart Objects, Photoshop allows you to bring in vector images and retain their vector data. It also allows you to bring in multiple layered images and treat them as one object.

Its like Photoshop is allowing you to import another Photoshop document, and is keeping all the layer info from that imported docuement.

Except, instead of referencing an external image, this Smart Object is embedded within your main Photoshop document.

Now, if you double click on the Smart Object, it opens this object like a separate Photoshop file, allowing you to edit all the layers within. When you save it, the changes appear like magic in the main file. You can close the Smart Object after saving and it open it again just by double clicking on the Smart Object layer in your main Photoshop document.

Now, you can blur text or vector images, or apply any number of other effects to the Smart Object “layer” without damaging the layer structure, vector or text information.

You can now edit non-destructively within Photoshop!

Example time! Woohoo!

Creating the Base Layer

Suppose you created an element within a Photoshop image. Imagine part of this is text over a gradient and you decide that you wanted to apply a blur on one side of the text, like a depth of field effect. Normally, I would have had to rasterize the text, changing it from text to pixels.

Once I did this, I would no longer be able to edit the text, as Photoshop sees it as just a bunch of dots now, not as text. With Smart Objects, I can make these edits with various filters, and still go in and change my text.

Lets create a basic document with text and a gradient:

Make That Smart Object, Boy

You’ll notice I have two layers, a gradient and a text layer. Select both layers and right click to save them as a Smart Object:

Once this is done, I will have two Photoshop documents open. One is my main document, and one is the Smart Object. For now, I’m going to save the Smart Object and close it.

Apply a Filter to a Smart Object

In the main document, select the Smart Object layer. We’re going to apply a gradient blur just to this ‘layer.’

Press Q to enter “Quick Mask Mode” and use the gradient tool to draw a gradient from one side to the other side of the document. You’ll see your mask appear like this:

Don’t get confused with the red gradient. This is not the same gradient as is in my image (which is a darker red and in the RGB channel). The bright red gradient is actually my mask and is an alpha channel. They are unrelated. I just happened to pick two gradients that go along the same direction. I’ve got to keep you on your toes somehow!

I created the quick mask in the same direction because when we are finished, I want the blur to look like its going into the distance, along the dark red gradient I created in the beginning.

Press Q again to exit “Quick Mask” and then select Blur in the filters menu.

When you have done this, you’ll end up with an image similar to this one:

Editing the Smart Object

Normally, if I had to make changes to the text, I’d have to make a new layer and start over. However, with the Smart Objects, just double click the layer and it opens up your Smart Object with all the layer and text information still intact! Go in and make some changes to the text:

In order for the changes to take affect, you’ve got to save this newly opened file. When you save it, you’ll notice the changes have automatically taken affect in your main document:

Be Happy

And what’s even cooler is that this Smart Object is embedded inside your main Photoshop document. You can save your Photoshop file and not worry about lots of little reference files, they are all inside your main file! You can save your one file and life is happy.

Bonus Points

And 10 bonus points go to anyone who realized I used the every popular overused Trajan Pro font. And since you made it this far through the tutorial, here’s a little history satire about Trajan Pro:

Related posts:

1. Photoshop Tip: Creating Stroke Outlines
2. Custom Brushes in Photoshop
3. Photoshop Brush Set Download: Markers 1
4. The Creative Process of a Digital Cartoon Design

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