Inspiring

Answered

Photoshop 21.2 BUG in smart object scaling on update

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
June 23, 2020
9 replies
8038 views

Double-click a smart object, edit the size of its canvas by reducing/cropping the height (for example), save, and back out to the main document. The placed/updated smart object is now re-scaled and "stretched" to fill the pixel dimensions of the object's former size.

The prior (correct) behavior was that the placed smart object would change in height but remain in the correct proportion and not be stretched.

Was this an intentional change in behavior (and if so, why??) or is it a bug?

If the former, what setting can be tweaked to revert to the older behavior?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer ET_phone_home

This issue seems to have been fixed with the rollout of Photoshop version 21.2.1

Thanks, Adobe!

G

GJC Artworker

Participant

I have been getting this issue with 2019 (although I never used to), 2020, 2021 and now 2022. It was working fine for me all morning in 2022 and now this odd behaviour has returned. Im using embedded smart objects, set to trim box. If I then create 'new smart object via copy' and delete all items except one object that i want in place, it moves off the canvas in photoshop.

ET_phone_homeAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

This issue seems to have been fixed with the rollout of Photoshop version 21.2.1

Thanks, Adobe!

ET_phone_homeAuthor

Inspiring

The issue has returned for me after an update of Photoshop which didn't seem to change the version number.

The "updated" version is still Photoshop 21.2.1, but now the smart object scaling/stretching error has returned.

Anyone else seeing this?

JJMack

Community Expert

smart objectsget distorted when changing the image size

JJMack

K

Kyle Wolff

Participant

We are having the same issue at our company, which is causing a major slow down in productivity. Reverting to an older version fixes the issue, but I wanted to chime in here so this issue hopefully gets resolved in an upcoming update. We maintain a library of over a million images all created in the last 15+ years where this functionality worked in a reliable and sensible way, now in 20.2 that changed. We can work around it with actions, but this adds a series of steps to our workflow which in turn adds considerable time. Thank you in advanced to Adobe for addressing this.

JJMack

Community Expert

If you are changing the size of the smart object you should not do that. The Change you see in 21.2 is most likely a bug fix. You happen to like the way the bug worked. If any of your smart object layer's Object transform has any warp setting even old versions of Photoshop will work like what you see in 21.2. In fact if other smart object layer in a document an share an object its Object transform will be different so you may see some layer change like you you would like the to and other layers change like you see in 21.2 which you do not like.

Here in Photoshop CS6 I created a Picture package where three smart object layer share a single image object. Not I did not do a great job. To fix that I fudged it a bit. I warped two of the Smart Object Layers Layer's Object Transform to hide my poor job. Actually to show you there is a bug in old Photoshop that you like.

If you use Replace Content or Open the change the contents of a smart object layer you must/should not change the size the replacement should be the same size as the original object. For every Smart object layer has a transform in it that transform the object for the layer's pixels. This Transform is not replaced or changed when you change the object. So the replacement need to be the same size for the transform to work.

So after I hid my poor job I opened the smart object and did thing your way. I select the Eyes and cropped. When I filed the crop you can see the results. The two smart object layers the have an object transfor with the warping had their picture areas fulled. The smart object layer that had no warping in its object transform failed to fill the image ares much of the area was empty. I know that is what you want. However, that does not make it correct operation.

The real problem is for correct operation you can not change a smart object size once an object is created. You changed the object size.

Now in 21.2 it works kile this

JJMack

ET_phone_homeAuthor

Inspiring

You can disagree STRONGLY and even ask Adobe to restore the old bug for you. When a smart object layer is created the smart object layer contains a transform that transform the object pixels to cover some area over the document canvas.

If you want to change that ares change the object transform use free transform. If you want to crop the smart object mask the smart object layer you can not change smart object pixels with Photoshop tools. If you want to resize the object and crop it do both. Size the object using free transform and Mask the resized layer. To many thimg depend on the object being what it is.

Here I have a simple template to Create car bucket sear covers top left. I placed that template into a car mockup template twice top right. Two independent smart object layers. One for the left seat the other for the right seat. I duplicated those two smart object layers so I could transform them for the seat backs and the seats and mask the layers. Below the templates are two jpeg that were create by my batch mockup script. Replacement covers must cover the seats. You can not randomly change the aspect ratio and sizes of smart object. To may things may depend on their sizes being what they are in the template.

Changing the size is not a proper thing to do to many tinn nay deped it it siae beint wit is in the template. Adobe may put the old bug back in. One never knows what Adobe will do to Photoshop. Even for a simple mockip template like this.

Well, your seat covers template is beautiful - very nice work.

Your template and workflow don't seem to involve any resizing of smart object canvases, though—and that's fine, since in this case there's no reason to resize them.

My point is, being able to resize smart object canvases without having the objects stretch and distort is also a legitimate use (and expectation) for smart objects—not only for myself, but also many others judging by the posts in this and similar threads. It has always worked that way up until this recent update, and has become a huge part of our workflows. To say that something which has always worked and been extremely useful to so many people was the bug is just silly.

Now, if you want to add the functionality of being able to "pin" the corners of a placed smart object so that when you resize its canvas the contents will stretch and distort (the new, and yes "buggy," behavior), then fine. I imagine there might be a legit use case for doing that. But then I would expect to see an adjustable setting added to Photoshop so the user can choose whether s/he wants a certain smart object to hehave that way. No such setting is currently available. (Maybe you can put in a feature request.)

At any rate, as Kyle Wolff has pointed out, Adobe is apparently looking into fixing this which would make this argument mute.

L

LM77

Participant

I experienced the same problem. Very frustrating. This was never an issue before. I had to revert to a previous version of Photoshop (21.1.3). That seems to have solved it.

JJMack

Community Expert

Yes the cropped object is not processed the same as in old version of Photoshop. Now a cropped object will be distorted to the width and height the Smart object layer was before the object was cropped. In previous Photoshop versions that only happened when the smart object layer's object transform also contained warping.

The thing is all smart object layers have an Object Transform and the transform may also contain positioning and warping distortion. This Object transform is not changed when you replace the contents of a smart object. With either method replace content or open and modify the object. The Replacement content must be the same size as object being changed. Smart Object can be shared by other smart object layers there can be many different object transform in a document to position sized and distort the object for the different layers content. The Change you are seeing may even be a bug fix. A bug you were using in past versions.

If you want to change the size of a smart object layer changes the layer's Object transform using Ctrl+T free transform. If your want to crop it mask the layer you can not change the object size. You can also do both transform the size and mask the changed size.

JJMack

C

colinbrain

Participating Frequently

This bug has completely broken my workflow that I have used for years and I am unable to complete the project I am working on. This urgently needs to be fixed because it is a completely unacceptable bug.

JJMack

Community Expert

You need to be able to work around Adobe bugs. You never know what Adobe will brake next or if they will fix the bugs they add. Keep old versions of Photoshop installed as a safety net. Adobe has also done some thimg wrong by design for someone at Adobe felt the wrong wats is the bewer way

JJMack

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

True that.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/in-photoshop-21-2-changing-the-canvas-size-inside-a-resized-smart-object-results-in-a-deformed-object-in-the?topic-reply-list%5Bsettings%5D%5Bfilter_by%5D=all&topic-reply-list%5Bsettings%5D%5Bpage%5D=1#reply_20571614

ET_phone_homeAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for posting that link on Photoshop Family.

I updated Photoshop via the Creative Cloud desktop app this morning (it still says it's version 21.2.0), and this smart object scaling/skewing issue is still as problem.

JJMack

Community Expert

Hold on a second. You need to realize that every smart layers has an associated object transform set when the smart object layer was created and that transform can be alters and even have warping added for perspective or shape. When you use replace content or edit a smart object, Smart object layers associated transform are not changed. If you change the aspect ratio or size of the object you can not count on the associated transform working some predictably way. A smart object can also be shared by duplicated layer that have different associated object transforms set. There can be many transforms associated with a smart object. If you change the size of a smart object you are asking for problems.

If you create a smart object layer and do not change photoshop defaulted object transform. You may get away with scaling an object. However, changing the objects aspect ratio by cropping or adding canvas is simply asking for problems. If you scale an object how can you count on it warping the way you want when the transform warping was set for the object original scale. If you just accept Photoshop original associated object transform will normally do no resizing if you create the smart object from photoshop document layers, the default object transform will most likely be transform the width and height to the object actual pixels size 100% width and 100% object height.

You should not change any aspect of a smart object canvas. It need to have that many pixels the canvas width and eight to match what the associated object transforms were set up with.

JJMack

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

»If you change the size of a smart object you are asking for problems.«

So far the behaviour has been consitent – changing a Smart Object’s Canvas Size will not change its instances scaling.

After more than a decade of this behaviour changing it without a discernable benefit seems unreasonable.

And the kicker is this: It can lead to different results when updating different unscaled, unwarped, … instances of the same Smart Object!

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

It seems the issue only arises if the SO instance has been tranformed.

Which makes the new behaviour even more nonsensical … if there are two instances and one has been transformed or moved and the other not, then the updating of the SO with a changed Canvas Size will result in the one instance getting distorted, the other not.