[FEATURE REQUEST] Dragging and dropping files should create true smart objects

[Miguel Espírito Santo]

Hello.

This has been bugging me for a while.

Whenever i drag a file from the finder and drop on photoshop, it creates a smart object and that's all well and good. BUT, if i try and edit that smart object, i need to flatten the image before saving it.

If dropping the file on photoshop created a "normal" smart object, it would save me tons of time. (there must be a better way to describe this instead of "normal smart object", but i haven't found it)

[D Fosse]

There is no reason you should ever have to flatten a smart object before saving it. You have some other problem there.

What exactly happens when you try to save?

[Mohammad.Harb]

In preferences settings: Trun off " always create smart object when placing " as shown in the screenshot below

[Miguel Espírito Santo]

It would be great that i was just doing something wrong. So, what exacly happens is an error pops up:

"Can't save this document back to its original file format. Flatten layers and discard extra data as necessary then choose File > Save again."

I have attached the exact error. I also had a screen recording of the process, but the platform only supports online videos and i'm not uploading to youtube just for this so, the error screenshot will have to suffice.

For reference, i have the option "Always create smart objects when placing" active (since i do want a smart object, not a raster)

[Miguel Espírito Santo]

Hello, i figured this would be suggested, but this cannot be the solution. I want a smart object, not a raster. Also, the process of placing as raster has a massive flaw... it reduces the image size to the size of the document you're working on, so that's not great.

[Mohammad.Harb]

I got your point now , that actualy happens if you palce any file that does not support layers like jpg or png,

Here is my workflow as I  run into this issue and I solved it my way to work non-destructively:

whenever I palce any file ( jpg , PNG , ... )  it will be placed  as smart objet, the first thing i do is converting that smart object again to another smartobject ( i create a shortcut to for that ) now when you double click on that smart object you will get inside the smartobject and you will be able to wotk and save without getting the message to flatten your artwok because the new smart object will be saved in "psb" format.

[Miguel Espírito Santo]

This seemed like a good workaround, but i just tried it on a small resolution document with a high-resolution file and one of two things happens, depending on how one does this:

1. Converting the placed smart object directly into a smart object gives us the same problem as placing a raster file, which is the resolution becomes constrained to the document size

2. Double clicking the placed smart object and converting that into a smart object then leads to having to duplicate the object to the document you want, which would be the same as opening the image with photoshop with right-click...

Or maybe i did not fully understand your method, what does your action actually do?

[D Fosse]

Right, I misunderstood. I was thinking of the master smart object file, but you meant the embedded file. Confusing terminology perhaps. I'm used to the embedded file being a PSB..

Yes, very simple answer, as Mohammad says: jpeg doesn't support layers. That's it. That's why you have to flatten.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

I just had a quick play and this could be scripted, however, I understand that this is a feature request so you may not be interested in such a hack. This would be similar but different to the following request to automate the creation of linked SO files from embedded SO files:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/converting-to-linked-smart-object/td-...

[Miguel Espírito Santo]

Oh, wow! That's kind of incredible, your scripting ability. But yeah, I posted this as a feature request.

The answer "jpeg doesn't support layers, that's why you have to flatten" is great to understand WHY it happens, but i'm sure Adobe can find a way to run some magic behind the scenes to place as a PSD and not JPG, even if it's an option on the preferences turned on/off.

[D Fosse]

The only practical way to get around this, would be to automatically "convert" any embedded file to PSB.

I put "convert" in quotation marks because it's not quite as simple as that. The file would have to be opened/decoded and resaved/encoded as PSB - even if that's done under the covers, it takes a bit of time. The question is whether that would start a new line of complaints ("why are smart objects so slow").

But yes, that would solve many issues and make the whole process more consistent.

EDIT: Obviously not possible with linked smart objects.