Losing quality when I resize?

"resize = lose quality" is the law of gravitation in pixel-based raster image editing. It's a fundamental axiom. There's no way to escape it.

Smart Objects is a clever way to postpone the final resizing so that it only happens once, at the very end, thus limiting the damage.

The way that works is to keep an embedded copy of the original inside the file, while projecting "an image of the image" in Photoshop. This projection can be transformed and distorted as much as you like, while the original just sits there unchanged. Each subsequent transformation refers back to the same original.

But sooner or later you have to push the button, if you want to output the file. Then the original is resized/transformed, with the degradation that always happens when resampling pixel data. But it only happens once. It doesn't accumulate.

Of course you'll lose quality when resizing back and forth. You are forcing the program to "invent" pixels (interpolation/ extrapolation) and things get worse with every step as every consecutive step is based on already falsified information.. this is perfectly normal in any graphics program. The only way to avoid it is to use vector based artwork like a smart object originating as an Illustrator file.

Mylenium

Btw the first image is before the resize and the second one is after