P: Externally Linked Smart Objects

Would you care to elaborate why it is necessary?

I would very much prefer a placeholder image in cases where the linked image is missing for the reasons explained above.

The flattened copy is the transformed version - not the same as the original child document. The flattened copy is necessary for many reasons and won't be removed anytime soon.

It sounds like what you're asking for is an "auto-relink" feature... in the case where the file type changes? (when photoshop sees you need to preform a save as due to changes of the linked file that require it be saved as more robust file type i.e.; jpg -> (add layers) -> save as .psd or .tiff).

Thanks for the info about AE, Reimund. Sounds like it works in a similar way to what I imagined.

I appreciate that recent digital cameras are more megapixel gifted, I suppose to clarify my earlier comments, it isn't so much the pixel size of the original image you're linking to but it's the actual size its re-sized to when in the document that effects the psd file size.

Appreciate your point about being able to switch between seeing it or not though, maybe they'll introduce that as an option. I personally wouldn't benefit from seeing a place holder outline in my work so would keep the flattened image option. Not sure how Photoshop would be able to handle effects or masking applied to it either if it was just a placeholder box, so maybe that's the reason it works the way it does.

Try suggesting that as a new idea topic of its own as this might get lost and overlooked in this post.

Alternatively, work at far lower psd document resolutions using linked smart objects or other scalable objects and re-size your canvas back up later.

In After Effects you get a placeholder picture if the footage link cannot be resolved. If I recall correctly a rectangular area is shown with the same bounds as the object, including a questionmark or some text indicating a broken link.

For the record, digital cameras nowadays easily produces 35 megapixel pictures (ie 10-30 MB jpegs) so that's a rather usual scenario. Saving files this size is very slow and if one could omit the preview/flattened copy you'd save tons of time.

And more importantly, fixing the implementation would also make it much more feasible to version control Photoshop documents. with, say Git or Mercurial.

The file size of the PSD is directly proportional to the preview size in the document, so a 35mb jpeg file previewing at actual size would be pretty massive in file size as you said. Scale it down to something smaller/ more manageable and the file size shrinks though, so unless you work on a huge hi -re screen capable of resolutions around the 7000/8000k width (that's 8k TV resolution!!) then it would be normal to be working on a much smaller image / resolution.

I do see your point about you wanting it to act more like a placeholder than a linked file though, but the only problem would be as to what happens when the link is broken. What would appear, an empty transparent box border with an x in like a DTP package? Personally I'd sooner see a flattened preview than that and accept the larger file size.

Not familiar enough to AE to know how it handles linked files that are broken from the link. Can you clarify what it does or is it something like the above?

Yes, exactly. Photoshop creates a flattened copy of the linked document, which often is bigger than the linked file itself. We need a way to disable that.

For example if I link a 35 megapixel jpeg (15MB) into a document the saved file will be over 120 MB! I would expect the link to work as it does in After Effects. No embedded (flattened) copy of the object and that the link is automatically resolved.

I'm confused. As far as I can tell, its doing what you've asked for.

Please explain what your doing in steps for us to re-create it and what you're expecting to be able to do that its not currently doing.

What is a "proper link"?

From what I can tell, PS CC doesn't embed the file, it creates a flattened preview (not copy) which stays with the file, keeping the original file linked. Break the link by re-naming/ moving etc, it reverts & shows the flattened preview & locks you out of re-scaling until the link is re-established. It still shows and can be worked on though.

As far as I know, that how a "proper" link works, or were you expecting something else?

Thanks for finally working on this. It's something After Effects had for +10 years and it's been my number one want for just as long. Its good that we're *almost* there in Photoshop as well. But why not go all the way?

I say we're almost there because unless the user can disable the *feature* of automatically embedding a copy of the linked object this implementation is actually broken.

In other words, there must be a way to do a proper link, without embedding anything.

That would give us smaller files and much faster saves (and faster file transfers). It would also mean that you could actually version control psds which otherwise would be very large. Currently that's unfeasable.

Please fix! (or inform me if I'm missing something)

that is great news -- thanks for the info David.