How do I crop the contents of a smart object?

[J Isner]

I have a layer stack containing a smart object. I cropped the image, discarding unused pixels. But the smart object still contains those pixels. How do I apply the same crop to the smart object's contents?

[jane-e]

Hi @J Isner 

Open the SO by double-clicking the icon in the Layers panel to open the .psb > make edits > save and close the psb to return to the psd.

~ Jane

[J Isner]

It's the "make edits" that's the problem.  If I "open" the smart object (by double clicking) I see the original (uncropped) image.  I need to crop the contents of the smart object so that it matches the main image.  For example, it would be nice if I could Select All in the main image, then open the smart object and crop to the selection boundary. However, the selection does not carry over when you open the smart object.

[JJMack]

Smart object Pixels are hardened by Photoshop they can not be changed using Photoshop tools.  If you crop a document that contains the Smart Object layers the smart object layers will be Clipped by the document changed Canvas size. The Smart Object will not be changed. The layer is effectively masked by the documents canvas.

[jane-e]

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@J Isner wrote:

It's the "make edits" that's the problem.  If I "open" the smart object (by double clicking) I see the original (uncropped) image. 

In your case the "edit" you want to make is to crop. I apologize if that wasn't clear.

I can think of two other ways you can do this:

• Rasterize the SO so it becomes a pixel layer
• Crop without the Crop tool:
  1. Marquee Selection tool > Make selection | Select menu > Save Selection | Image menu > Crop
  2. Select menu > Load Selection > Repeat
  I haven't tested this, so save first. I don't see why it wouldn't work.

~ Jane

[J Isner]

Yes, I ended up having to rasterize the smart object in order to crop it.  However I believe there must be a way to do this without sacrificing the smart object.

Here is what I am trying to do. The main document is a panoramic image. I converted one of the layer groups in the main document to a smart object. In the main document, I then cropped out a square out of the middle of the panorama. But when I open the smart object, it's still a panorama. Normally this wouldn't matter. But my workflow involves making two prints: once from the main object and once from the smart object. The image in the main document will be printed on paper.  The image in the smart object will be printed on clear film. The clear film will be laid over the paper print.  Clearly, the two have to match, and that's my problem.  I want to be able to open the smart object and crop it to an identical square so the film matches the paper.

[Bojan Živković]

Just to confirm @JJMack statement: Smart Object layer can not be cropped. Content of SO layer is in the background and what you see on layer are pixels rendered from original file then usually scaled down. If you want to crop content then you must acess content of SO and that is what @jane-e is suggesting.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I can think of work arounds, but is there an important reason why you need to do this?

I did wonder if making guides at 0% and 100% would show when the SO was opened in a new window, but that didn't work.  What you could do, is

1. Open the SO in a new window.
2. Select all the layers and duplicate back to the original document.
3. You could then initiate a crop, tap on a corner handle to make the crop active and OK it
4. Select the duplicated layers and make them a new SO

Or you could just live with it. The biggest problem with SOs and cropping IME is alignment.  Same thing when you need to edit the SO and need to add canvas to make room for the edit. When you save the edited SO the location has broken.  You can get round this with the same duplicate layers trick, and align them to the original SO, maybe setting the blend mode to Difference (which makes the pixek turn black when perfectly aligned).