Smart Object is a Photoshop layer that lets you edit and resize the image in a nondestructive manner.
To understand what it means, take this image of a dog in a smartphone and put it in another image as a normal layer.
It will be alright at first but when you try to resize or reshape the image even once, it will lose its quality and become unusable like this.
To combat this issue, we have to make it a smart object layer. Smart object layers hold all the image data that allows you to resize and reshape the image as you like without causing degradation.
If you just make the image as a smart object layer before resizing it, you can scale it up or down without affecting the quality of the image.
Imagine you want to use the “Gaisium Blur” effect on this same dog image. If you find it too much, you can’t edit the effect without causing significant quality degradation.
Now, if you make the image smart object first, the “Gaisium Blur” effect will be added under the layer and you can modify it as you like without harming the original image quality.
This works with any other effects and edits. They will be added as a layer under the smart object layer and can be removed and modified as you like without affecting the main image.
Mockup templates simplify the lives of POD and dropshipping business owners, as well as anyone involved in marketing-related tasks.
The mockup templates we use are made with Smart Object Layers.
That’s why we can put our images in an already made template, resize it, reshape it and it still looks perfect.
Say for example, we have an image of this kid taking an online class on her laptop.
And we want to change the image of the teacher in the laptop with this new image.
If we try to put it in the laptop without making it a smart object, the resizing and reshaping process will surely destroy the image quality.
But as Smart Object layers hold all the image data, we can easily do it while keeping the quality by making the image a smart object.
If we resize it and edit it to fit the laptop screen in the right perspective while holding control, the results are amazing like the image below.
You can still scale it up or down and put effects of your liking but the smart object will hold all the original image data and won’t destroy the quality.
