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Link to different files, possible?


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gabrielh

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Hello all!

Is it possible in Photoshop to link certain parts of a documents to other documents, without importing these? Let me elaborate:

Say you make a big composition, made up of a lot of different objects. Is it possible to make every object in different Photoshop documents, as to keep to file size lower, and then importing each of them in some "master" file. Thus, this master file would "only" have some links to the other files, but won't have a gigantic file size if every object would be copy-pasted into it.

Does Photoshop let us do such trick? :cool2:

Thanks for all help on the subject!
Take care,
Gabriel
 
Thanks for your help, SCTRWD, I appreciate! I now only how to change an already made layer into a smart object, didn't know it had other uses, I'll check that!
Thanks!
 
The difference is - all smart objects are part of the "master" file. They are literally just files inside a file. But any copy (or as they put it - instance) of a smart object is just a "link" to it's object presentation(raster or vector image) with some transformations applied.

To change already made layer into a smart object just right click it in the Layers pallete and choose Convert to Smart Object.
 
Beware that Smart Objects are no way the "links" in traditional sense. There is no hierarchy - it's just one level. There are lots of things you would expect for granted which are not there. Smart Objects in PS are just lame, quick and easy patch. They work ok in most applications but don't expect much of it.

All in all, there are two types of Smart objects: raster and vector ones:

Raster ones are created in raster editors and are saved in PSD file as it's source file and it's raster image presentation.

Vector ones are created in vector editors(like AI) and are saved in PSD file as it's source file and it's vector presentation in EPS or PDF format.

That is why, for example, in PS the shape turned to Smart object is no more vector - PS is raster editor and the presentation image will be a raster one.

PS does not suppose to know the way the Smart Object was created, it just keeps it's source file and it's represantation as raster or vector image.

When you edit Smart Object PS just exports it's source file to the temp directory and starts the application which created it. Then it waits for it's new source file and a new presentation.

For each instance of Smart Object PS keeps only the transform parameters.
 
Thanks for the good help, I understand it a bit better now. I knew these Smart Objects existed, but never started to use them though... Great info!
 
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