- Photoshop User Guide
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
- Photoshop on the iPad (not available in mainland China)
- Photoshop on the iPad | Common questions
- Get to know the workspace
- System requirements | Photoshop on the iPad
- Create, open, and export documents
- Add photos
- Work with layers
- Draw and paint with brushes
- Make selections and add masks
- Retouch your composites
- Work with adjustment layers
- Adjust the tonality of your composite with Curves
- Apply transform operations
- Crop and rotate your composites
- Rotate, pan, zoom, and reset the canvas
- Work with Type layers
- Work with Photoshop and Lightroom
- Get missing fonts in Photoshop on the iPad
- Japanese Text in Photoshop on the iPad
- Manage app settings
- Touch shortcuts and gestures
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Edit your image size
- Livestream as you create in Photoshop on the iPad
- Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
- Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop on the iPad
- Work with Camera Raw files
- Create and work with Smart Objects
- Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
- Auto adjustment commands in Photoshop on the iPad
- Smudge areas in your images with Photoshop on the iPad
- Saturate or desaturate your images using Sponge tool
- Content aware fill for iPad
- Photoshop on the web (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions
- System requirements
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Supported file types
- Introduction to the workspace
- Open and work with cloud documents
- Generative AI features
- Basic concepts of editing
- Quick Actions
- Work with layers
- Retouch images and remove imperfections
- Make quick selections
- Image improvements with Adjustment Layers
- Add a fill layer
- Move, transform, and crop images
- Draw and paint
- Draw and edit Shapes
- Work with Type layers
- Work with anyone on the web
- Manage app settings
- Generate Image
- Generate Background
- Reference Image
- Photoshop (beta) (not available in mainland China)
- Generative AI (not available in mainland China)
- Common questions on generative AI in Photoshop
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the desktop
- Generate Image with descriptive text prompts
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the desktop
- Replace background with Generate background
- Get new variations with Generate Similar
- Generative Fill in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative Expand in Photoshop on the iPad
- Generative AI features in Photoshop on the web
- Content authenticity (not available in mainland China)
- Cloud documents (not available in mainland China)
- Photoshop cloud documents | Common questions
- Photoshop cloud documents | Workflow questions
- Manage and work with cloud documents in Photoshop
- Upgrade cloud storage for Photoshop
- Unable to create or save a cloud document
- Solve Photoshop cloud document errors
- Collect cloud document sync logs
- Invite others to edit your cloud documents
- Share files and comment in-app
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Preferences
- Learn faster with the Photoshop Discover Panel
- Create documents
- Place files
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- Tool galleries
- Performance preferences
- Use tools
- Presets
- Grid and guides
- Touch gestures
- Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop
- Touch capabilities and customizable workspaces
- Technology previews
- Metadata and notes
- Place Photoshop images in other applications
- Rulers
- Show or hide non-printing Extras
- Specify columns for an image
- Undo and history
- Panels and menus
- Position elements with snapping
- Position with the Ruler tool
- Web, screen, and app design
- Image and color basics
- How to resize images
- Work with raster and vector images
- Image size and resolution
- Acquire images from cameras and scanners
- Create, open, and import images
- View images
- Invalid JPEG Marker error | Opening images
- Viewing multiple images
- Customize color pickers and swatches
- High dynamic range images
- Match colors in your image
- Convert between color modes
- Color modes
- Erase parts of an image
- Blending modes
- Choose colors
- Customize indexed color tables
- Image information
- Distort filters are unavailable
- About color
- Color and monochrome adjustments using channels
- Choose colors in the Color and Swatches panels
- Sample
- Color mode or Image mode
- Color cast
- Add a conditional mode change to an action
- Add swatches from HTML CSS and SVG
- Bit depth and preferences
- Layers
- Layer basics
- Nondestructive editing
- Create and manage layers and groups
- Select, group, and link layers
- Place images into frames
- Layer opacity and blending
- Mask layers
- Apply Smart Filters
- Layer comps
- Move, stack, and lock layers
- Mask layers with vector masks
- Manage layers and groups
- Layer effects and styles
- Edit layer masks
- Extract assets
- Reveal layers with clipping masks
- Generate image assets from layers
- Work with Smart Objects
- Blending modes
- Combine multiple images into a group portrait
- Combine images with Auto-Blend Layers
- Align and distribute layers
- Copy CSS from layers
- Load selections from a layer or layer mask's boundaries
- Knockout to reveal content from other layers
- Selections
- Get started with selections
- Make selections in your composite
- Select and Mask workspace
- Select with the marquee tools
- Select with the lasso tools
- Adjust pixel selections
- Move, copy, and delete selected pixels
- Create a temporary quick mask
- Select a color range in an image
- Convert between paths and selection borders
- Channel basics
- Save selections and alpha channel masks
- Select the image areas in focus
- Duplicate, split, and merge channels
- Channel calculations
- Get started with selections
- Image adjustments
- Replace object colors
- Perspective warp
- Reduce camera shake blurring
- Healing brush examples
- Export color lookup tables
- Adjust image sharpness and blur
- Understand color adjustments
- Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
- Adjust shadow and highlight detail
- Levels adjustment
- Adjust hue and saturation
- Adjust vibrance
- Adjust color saturation in image areas
- Make quick tonal adjustments
- Apply special color effects to images
- Enhance your image with color balance adjustments
- High dynamic range images
- View histograms and pixel values
- Match colors in your image
- Crop and straighten photos
- Convert a color image to black and white
- Adjustment and fill layers
- Curves adjustment
- Blending modes
- Target images for press
- Adjust color and tone with Levels and Curves eyedroppers
- Adjust HDR exposure and toning
- Dodge or burn image areas
- Make selective color adjustments
- Adobe Camera Raw
- Camera Raw system requirements
- What's new in Camera Raw
- Introduction to Camera Raw
- Create panoramas
- Supported lenses
- Vignette, grain, and dehaze effects in Camera Raw
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Automatic perspective correction in Camera Raw
- Radial Filter in Camera Raw
- Manage Camera Raw settings
- Open, process, and save images in Camera Raw
- Repair images with the Enhanced Spot Removal tool in Camera Raw
- Rotate, crop, and adjust images
- Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw
- Process versions in Camera Raw
- Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
- Image repair and restoration
- Image enhancement and transformation
- Drawing and painting
- Paint symmetrical patterns
- Draw rectangles and modify stroke options
- About drawing
- Draw and edit shapes
- Painting tools
- Create and modify brushes
- Blending modes
- Add color to paths
- Edit paths
- Paint with the Mixer Brush
- Brush presets
- Gradients
- Gradient interpolation
- Fill and stroke selections, layers, and paths
- Draw with the Pen tools
- Create patterns
- Generate a pattern using the Pattern Maker
- Manage paths
- Manage pattern libraries and presets
- Draw or paint with a graphics tablet
- Create textured brushes
- Add dynamic elements to brushes
- Gradient
- Paint stylized strokes with the Art History Brush
- Paint with a pattern
- Sync presets on multiple devices
- Migrate presets, actions, and settings
- Text
- Filters and effects
- Saving and exporting
- Color Management
- Web, screen, and app design
- Video and animation
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- Automation
- Troubleshooting
Understand Smart Objects and use them for non-destructive edits in Photoshop.
Topics in this article:
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.
You can't perform operations that alter pixel data—such as painting, dodging, burning, or cloning—directly to a Smart Object layer, unless it is first converted into a regular layer, which will be rasterized. To perform operations that alter pixel data, you can edit the contents of a Smart Object, clone a new layer above the Smart Object layer, edit duplicates of the Smart Object, or create a new layer.
When you transform a Smart Object that has a Smart Filter applied to it, Photoshop turns off filter effects while the transform is being performed. Filter effects are applied again after the transform is complete. See Apply Smart Filters.
You can create embedded Smart Objects using several methods: by using the Open As Smart Object command; placing a file (Photoshop CS6) or placing a file as embedded (Photoshop, and Photoshop CS6), pasting data from Illustrator; or converting one or more Photoshop layers to Smart Objects.
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Do any of the following:
- (Photoshop) Choose File > Place Embedded to import files as Smart Objects into an open Photoshop document.
- Choose File > Open As Smart Object, select a file, and click Open.
- (Photoshop CS6) Choose File> Place to import files as Smart Objects into an open Photoshop document.
Note:Although you can place JPEG files, it's better to place PSD, TIFF, or PSB files because you can add layers, modify pixels, and resave the file without loss. (Saving a modified JPEG file requires you to flatten new layers and recompress the image, causing image quality degradation).
- Choose Layer > Smart Object > Convert to Smart Object to convert a selected layer into a Smart Object.
- In Bridge, choose File > Place > In Photoshop to import a file as a Smart Object into an open Photoshop document.
Select one or more layers and choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert To Smart Object. The layers are bundled into one Smart Object.
Drag PDF or Adobe Illustrator layers or objects into a Photoshop document.
Paste artwork from Illustrator into a Photoshop document, and choose Smart Object in the Paste dialog box. For the greatest flexibility, enable both PDF and AICB (No Transparency Support) in the File Handling & Clipboard section of the Preferences dialog box in Adobe Illustrator.
In Photoshop, you can create Linked Smart Objects. The contents of Linked Smart Objects are updated when the source image file changes. Linked Smart Objects are particularly useful for teams or in cases where assets must be reused across designs.
Follow these steps to create a Linked Smart Object:
- Choose File > Place Linked.
- Select an appropriate file and click Place.
The Linked Smart Object is created and is displayed in the Layers panel with a link icon ().
You can also create a Linked Smart Object in an open document by dragging and dropping the appropriate file while keeping the following key pressed:
(Windows) Alt key
(Mac OS) Option key
To change this default behavior, turn off Preferences > General > Always Create Smart Objects While Placing.
File size savings using Linked Smart Objects
Since Linked Smart Objects maintain a dependency on an external file rather than embedding a source file within the containing document, they often result in significantly smaller file sizes. While Linked Smart Objects do not store the original file in the containing document, they still store a flattened and scaled version of the image data from the original file. In some cases, the size of this data may be much larger than the size of the original file, making the file size savings seem negligible.
Update Linked Smart Objects
If an external source file changes while a Photoshop document referencing it is open, the relevant Linked Smart Object is automatically updated. However, when you open a Photoshop document containing out-of-synch Linked Smart Objects, you can update the Smart Objects:
- Right-click a Linked Smart Object layer and choose Update Modified Content.
- Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Update Modified Content.
Linked Smart Objects whose source images have changed are visually highlighted in the Layers panel:
You can update all linked Smart Objects in the current Photoshop document by choosing Layer > Smart Objects > Update All Modified Content.
While detecting changes to Linked Smart Objects or updating a Linked Smart Object, Photoshop looks only at the immediate linked file. Links nested inside Smart Objects are not updated.
Resolve a broken Smart Object link
To resolve a Linked Smart Object with a missing external source, follow these steps:
- Right-click the Linked Smart Object layer icon and choose Resolve Broken Link.
- Navigate to the new location of the missing object.
- Click Place.
View Linked Smart Object properties
With a Linked Smart Object layer selected in the Layers panel, choose Window > Properties.
The following properties are displayed:
- The path of the external source file for the Linked Smart Object
- The Linked Smart Object size and positional coordinates (X, Y)
You can perform the following actions directly from within the Properties panel:
- Edit the contents of the external image file. If necessary, Photoshop opens an external application that can handle the source image file. For example, Photoshop opens Adobe Illustrator if the external source image is a .ai file.
- Embed the Linked Smart Object within the current document.
Embed Linked Smart Objects
Do one of the following:
- Right-click a Linked Smart Object layer in the Layers panel and choose Embed Linked.
- Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Embed Linked.
- In the Properties panel, click Embed.
Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Embed All Linked to embed all Linked Smart Objects in the Photoshop document.
Package Linked Smart Objects
You can package the Linked Smart Objects in a Photoshop document, such that their source files are saved to a folder on your computer. A copy of the Photoshop document is saved along with the source files in the folder.
- Choose File > Package.
- Select a location where you want to place the source files and a copy of the Photoshop document.
Any audio or video Linked Smart Objects in the document are packaged as well.
You must save a file before packaging the Linked Smart Objects that it contains.
How Photoshop locates linked files
Photoshop always looks for linked files in the last-known relative location. If the linked file is not found in that location, Photoshop looks for it:
- In the last-known absolute location
- Using a saved alias (Mac OS only)
- In the same folder as the containing document
This behavior allows you to move, copy, and share project folders and files with minimal risk of encountering broken links.
The Resolve Missing Assets dialog always displays the last-known absolute path of missing source files.
You can convert an embedded Smart Object to a Linked Smart Object. Transforms, filters, and other effects applied to the embedded Smart Object are preserved when it is converted.
Do the following:
- Select an embedded Smart Object layer in the Photoshop document.
- Choose Layer > Smart Object > Convert To Linked.
- Select the location on your computer where you want to save the source file. Enter a name for the file, including a supported extension. For example, link_file.jpg.
- In the Layers panel, select Smart Object from the filtering pop-up menu.
- Click one of the following icons:
- Filter for up-to-date Linked Smart Objects
- Filter for out-of-synch Linked Smart Objects
- Filter for missing Linked Smart Objects
- Filter for embedded Smart Objects
You can use the toggle switch () to turn off layer filtering.
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In the Layers panel, select a Smart Object layer, and do one of the following:
To create a duplicate Smart Object that is linked to the original, choose Layer > New > Layer Via Copy, or drag the Smart Object layer to the Create A New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Edits you make to the original affect the copy and vice versa.
To create a duplicate Smart Object that isn't linked to the original, choose Layer > Smart Objects > New Smart Object Via Copy. Edits you make to the original don't affect the copy.
A new Smart Object appears in the Layers panel with the same name as the original and "copy" as a suffix.
When you edit a Smart Object, the source content is opened in either Photoshop (if the content is raster data or a camera raw file) or the application that handles the placed format by default (for example, Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Acrobat). When you save changes to the source content, the edits appear in all linked instances of the Smart Object in the Photoshop document.
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Select the Smart Object from the Layers panel, and do one of the following:
- Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Edit Contents.
- Double-click the Smart Objects thumbnail in the Layers panel.
- In the Properties panel, click Edit Contents.
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Click OK to close the dialog box.
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Make edits to the source content file, then choose File > Save.
Photoshop updates the Smart Object to reflect the changes you made. (If you don't see the changes, make the Photoshop document containing the Smart Object active.)
You can replace the image data in one Smart Object or multiple linked instances. This feature lets you quickly update a visual design, or replace low-resolution placeholder images with final versions.
When you replace a Smart Object, any scaling, warping, or effects that you applied to the first Smart Object are maintained.
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Select the Smart Object, and choose Layer > Smart Objects > Replace Contents.
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Navigate to the file you want to use, and click Place.
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Click OK.
The new content is placed in the Smart Object.
You can convert an embedded or linked smart object back into its component layers directly into a Photoshop document. If there are multiple layers in the Smart Object, the layers are unpacked into a new layer group within the Layers panel. Transforms and Smart Filters on Smart Objects containing more than a single layer are not retained when you unpack.
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Select the Smart Object layer from the Layers panel.
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Do any of the following:
- Right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) the Smart Object layer and select Convert To Layers from the context menu.
- From the menu bar, choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert To Layers.
- In the Properties panel, click Convert To Layers.
- From the Layers panel's options menu, choose Convert To Layers.
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The layers are unpacked into a layer group in the Layers panel.
You can rasterize the contents of a Smart Object to a regular layer if you no longer need to edit the Smart Object data. Transforms, warps, and filters applied to a Smart Object are no longer editable after the Smart Object is rasterized.
Select the Smart Object, and choose Layer > Smart Objects > Rasterize.
If you want to re-create the Smart Object, reselect its original layers and start from scratch. The new Smart Object won't retain transforms you applied to the original Smart Object.
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Select the Smart Object from the Layers panel, and choose Layer > Smart Objects > Export Contents.
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Choose a location for the contents of the Smart Object, then click Save.
Photoshop exports the Smart Object in its original placed format (JPEG, AI, TIF, PDF, or other formats). If the Smart Object was created from layers, it is exported in PSB format.
If you've transformed a Smart Object, you can reset all transformations you've previously applied by doing one of the following:
- Right-click the Smart Object layer and choose Reset Transform
- Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Reset Transform