Reusable templates with Photoshop Smart Objects

Smart Objects are one of the more powerful features that have been added to Photoshop in recent years. I think it safe to say that smart objects are considered by most people to fall in to the “advanced Photoshop” category and for that reason alone a lot of people tend to avoid using them.

For me, smart objects earn their keep whenever it comes to making templates. By definition a template is something that’s likely to be reused and smart objects are the ultimate in layer recycling technology. So a few minutes spent making a template with smart objects could save you many hours of unnecessary work down the line. Now doesn’t that sound like something worth learning?

In this tutorial I’m going to demonstrate how to turn a DVD case and disc template into a reusable smart object template. First off we add a place holder image and once that’s saved, updating the photo becomes as easy as copying and pasting.

I’d like to thank Dave Cross (king of the smart objects) for passing on a few tips that made this tutorial possible.