Smart Object
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I am creating a little character mascot in photoshop. I think that I need to save it as a smart object, so that I can enlarge or shrink it in the future. Am I correct about that? How do I do that? and can I still make changes to it, once it has been converted to a smart object?
I can't figure out how to post stuff on here...
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If you intend to enlarge the image beyond the original resolution, you cannot really do that with Photoshop - you need to convert the raster image (what Photoshop creates and edits) into a vector image (what Adobe Illustrator creates and edits). There is no automatic way to do this (at least none that gives really good quality) - you will have to re-draw your image in Illustrator.
It depends very much what you need to do with the image. If it needs to be printed really large, there is no way around Adobe Illustrator. You can handle very large raster files in Photoshop (I have done a 6-meter (18 ft) illustration once in Photoshop), but you need a powerful computer for that.Vector files are much more flexible and light if you need to scale and re-scale a lot.
Photoshop smart objects have a lot of very practical uses - all originating from the fact that you can manipulate the original image non destructively (I.e. The original object remains always intact). You create one by simply right clicking on the layer that contains the "object" you want to make a smart object of, and selecting "convert to smart object" from the drop down menu. You cannot edit a smart object directly, but you can by double clicking on it (it opens in a separate Photoshop window). It is a bit complicated to go into all you can and cannot do with smart objects here - there are excellent tutorials online, however.
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@smceccarelli Wow, thanks a ton!
