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daveinpublicity
Participating Frequently
May 18, 2011
Open for Voting

P: Inline, on canvas Smart Object Editing (Symbols)

  • May 18, 2011
  • 27 replies
  • 3189 views

Brief title for your desired feature:
Inline Smart Object Editting

How would you like the feature to work?
Make Smart Objects editable without double clicking them. Add a drop down arrow so that you can see all of the layers (just like folders). Then, you can edit right there. If you have multiple instances of the smart object, you can watch them all update together.

Why is this feature important to you?
For one, I could edit more quickly. Also, with this functionality I would be able to edit projects in an 'environment'. If I'm making a backdrop for a stage (which I do), I can take a picture of the stage, and work on the project within the actual stage, and make a better composition that is more cohesive with the surroundings. When you're done, you can just export the smart object, it's already got the right dpi, dimensions, color mode.... it's done. I could paint light shadows in the main canvas over areas that are in the dark, so that I automatically make those colors brighter in the 'smart object' (that feels like a folder) without even thinking. I could place objects in front of the smart object that will be covered by a speaker or a person. You could also use it for product design, to create a label directly on a bottle. Or if you want to create entire projects in one psd, where you've got an empty business card, dvd, dvd box, poster, all in one file and in one fell swoop you finish the whole job. I could see it used for billboard designs, and many other projects.

BTW, you could make two modes for Smart Objects. When you first place/create a smart object, it is in normal mode. But, as soon as you skew it (to give it perspective, or just to squash it), it enters perspective mode. When you choose the brush tool and paint on a layer in a smart object in 'perspective' mode, you see a light green square on top of the smart object that represents the smart object's boundaries if it were flat. As you paint in the light green boundaries, you see the edits happening in the skewed perspective of the smart object. That could be very handy for many different scenarios. Same with the type tool and every other tool.

    27 replies

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    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    May 25, 2016


    Imagine that we have a UI kit and that each component is a linked smart object saved as a .psb file.

    Lets take a button for instance, a green button but it really could be anything. When you first create the button and its layers you create it in the context/place where it is going to be used or maybe within a UI kit design guideline PSD where you keep all your components. That UI kit file may have a white background which nicely contrasts the button you are creating. When you are done you create a smart object out of the layers and convert it to a linked smart object and save as a psb.

    You've now "File -> Place Linked" the smart object into a new document that you're working on and you've positioned the button in its place. You decide that you want to edit the color of the button so you double click on the layers thumbnail to Edit Contents. No longer do you have that white background or the context that the button was created in or where it was placed, the canvas is a snug fit around the button.

    I think it would help a lot of designers greatly if there was an option in Photoshop to edit a smart object's contents "In Context" or "In Place" as well as the normal "Edit Contents" where it jumps you over to the psb file, of course the "Edit In Context" would update the master smart object and save to the psb file.
    A
    Anonymous
    May 25, 2016


    Ability to edit a Smart Object "in place" like Flash supports with movieclips, so the user can choose to visually see the surrounding elements while editting the Smart Object.
    Maybe the regions outside the Smart Object become transparent but still visible instead of only seeing the smart object in a separate PSB file, or at least bring the visual into the PSB so user can use as reference while editting Smart Object.
    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 4, 2015
    »Why then not doing as Illustrator, let us edit the smart object directly in the document and fade the context behind?«
    When double-clicking a Symbol in Illustrator to edit it the preview will neglect applied rotation for example so how »good« is that really?
    And the differences between pixel and vector oriented applications can make some of their behaviours »not easily or even at all transferable« to the respective other, I guess.
    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 4, 2015
    »Now that artboards enhance the ability to have an overview of your "screens workflow", it would be a breeze to enhance smart objects too.«
    How did you arrive at that conclusion?
    Have you given some thought to what artboards actually are?
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    July 3, 2015


    Now that artboards enhance the ability to have an overview of your "screens workflow", it would be a breeze to enhance smart objects too.
    Today, when you edit a smart object, you leave the document, which makes it difficult to make right design decisions about the component without seeing it in its context.
    Why then not doing as Illustrator, let us edit the smart object directly in the document and fade the context behind?
    Thank you in advance,
    François
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    June 24, 2014


    Instead of opening a new window to edit a Smart Object, it would be great to edit it inside the document, or at least have the option to. Sometimes you need to see it in context with the rest of the document and you currently need to keep on saving in order to do that.
    F
    FeedbackCommunityMember
    Inspiring
    April 10, 2014


    I'd love the ability to create smart objects, or smart groups, and edit them in the same document in the context they currently exist.

    Example:

    Say I have some text and icons in a group that I want to appear in multiple locations within a Photoshop document. I can achieve this currently with smart objects. Now if I need to change the text within that smart object, I would open the smart object and change it, but I completely lose the context of the object when it opens a new document, especially if the icons and text are alone in that object. If that is the case, the smart object has a transparent background, creating issues with contrast between the text/icons and the background.

    If the smart object opened in an isolated view above the rest of the document, very similar to editing within groups in Illustrator, I could keep the context and the layers behind the object.

    If this interests anyone, or needs any further explanation, I'd be happy to create visual mockups of the idea.

    -Adam
    P
    perhiniak
    Participant
    April 20, 2012
    It would be great to have the similar editing option for Smart Objects as for Symbols, Compound shapes or Groups in Illustrator (Isolation). A simple double click with the Move tool on the image or on the layer thumbnail would open up the source of the Smart Object directly in the same document window and indicate the route just below the Document Tab with a Path bar (breadcrumbs). Photoshop would just simply dim all background elements and show the layers of the Smart Object in the Layers panel giving all the editing possibility without leaving the original document window.

    If the user needs to see the Smart Object separately he would be able to get to the source itself by Alt+double clicking on the image or on the layer's thumbnail.

    This would be extremely useful when there are several layers of Smart Objects inside Smart Objects and the user needs to see them in context. At the moment it is easy to get lost between lots of Smart Object document windows.



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    cboston2009
    Participant
    April 20, 2012
    When editing Smart Objects in a file is there a way to view the image that the Smart Object lives in rather than simply editing the smart object in it's completely separate file? Using:PS CS5/CS6 Mac OS Lion. It would be great if while editing a smart object such as painting into it if i could see the background file that it lives in. It's just so much more easy to make a change to something when I can see how the change makes it look in the overall image. I love that I can maintain detail if i ever need to resize and image all my smart objects have more detail to show but it's just a pain to edit them without being able to see everything else. Any suggestilons?

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    dtrachtman
    Participant
    February 14, 2012
    With their own palette like in Fireworks, and it should be organizable. Smart Objects are not the same thing.

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