Photoshop is a powerful program that can be used to create beautiful graphics and photos. However, sometimes you may need to automate some of the tasks that you do with Photoshop. One way to do this is by using Smart Objects. Smart Objects are objects that are created in Photoshop and can be edited as if they were individual objects. This means that you can easily change the properties of the object and make it more efficient in your work. To create a Smart Object, first open Photoshop and click on the New button on the left side of the screen. Then, select Smart Object from the list that appears. Next, enter a name for your new object and click on OK. Once you have created your Smart Object, you can use it as you please. You can change its properties any time you want, but we recommend saving your changes so that you can come back to them later if needed. If you have ever used other programs such as Illustrator or Inkscape to create graphics or photos, then you will know how important it is to use Smart Objects when editing images or graphics in Photoshop.Smart Objects make editing images and graphics much easier than trying to edit each object separately and then saving your changes as a file.
Ever lay out a page of multiple business cards (or other project) to print, only to have to come back to perform dozens of annoying edits? Photoshop Smart Objects can automate this process and turn dozens of annoying steps into an easy few.
We’ll make an example of a business card design I’ve done for How-To Geek. Standard American business card sizes are usually 3.5″ x 2″.
This is the product I came up with. All the text is editable at this stage, even the “How-To Geek” headline. You can start with whatever design you want, business card or not.
Select all of your layers by holding and clicking each one. You want to have a solid color layer behind your entire card. Don’t pick the “Background” layer, and leave your text editable.
Press to group them all together.
Right-click your new group and choose “Convert to Smart Object.”
The business card has now painlessly become a Smart Object. You can’t directly edit the text or images anymore! But what do we gain from that? Let’s take a look.
Go to Image > Canvas Size or simply press .
Resize your page to 8″ x 10″. This is a standard size that nearly any desktop inkjet or laserjet can print without cropping your image.
We’ve got plenty of room to lay out our cards on this page for print. Make eight copies of your business card and arrange them on your page.
Normally there are proper, exact steps to laying out cards for production, but I’ll leave these out for the time being. For now, these cards are laid out by eye, and more-or-less evenly. (I can better show this technique in another How-To, on another day. But for now, this will suffice.)
At this point, fellow author Trevor Bekolay asks that I make him a set of these How-To Geek business cards. Do I edit the cards eight times? Thanks to my smart objects, I edit them only one time.
Right click any of your eight business card smart objects. Pick “Edit Contents” from the contextual menu.
You’ll get this warning if you’ve never edited a Smart Object before. You can safely tell it to never show you this again, but read the warning!
Smart Objects are sort of like Photoshop files within Photoshop files. The group of text and graphics we made earlier has become “Group 2.psb” buried within our file. You’ll find that all your layers and graphics are here and editable again.
I edit the text to change Trevor’s name and qualifications, as well as his URL. Seems simple enough.
I close the file and save it,when asked. Remember, nothing you’ve changed in this object will remain changed unless you save these changes!
All eight of my business cards have become Trevor’s, instantly. When you edit the original smart object, it changes all the copies you have made of it.
With nearly no additional time invested, I can create cards for everyone in the entire company. Keep in mind, you can change more than simply text—any changes to your graphics, colors, etc. will change once you edit the source Smart Object.
