Smart Object

A Smart Object is Photoshop’s container for non-destructive editing. When you convert a layer to a Smart Object — right-click → Convert to Smart Object — any filter you apply becomes a Smart Filter, stored separately from the pixels and adjustable or removable at any time.

Without Smart Objects, Photoshop is partially destructive. Apply a Gaussian Blur to a regular pixel layer and those pixels are permanently blurred. Convert to Smart Object first, apply the same blur, and you can double-click the filter at any time to change the radius or delete it entirely.

What Smart Objects enable

Smart Filters. Every Photoshop filter (Blur, Sharpen, Distort, Noise reduction, Liquify) applied to a Smart Object becomes a Smart Filter. The filter appears as a sub-layer you can toggle, edit, or delete.

Embedded and linked files. A Smart Object can contain an entire file — a PNG, another PSD, an Illustrator vector — embedded inside the parent document. Resize the Smart Object and the embedded content scales without quality loss. Compare this to scaling a rasterised layer, which degrades on upscaling.

Linked Smart Objects. A linked Smart Object references an external file. Multiple Photoshop documents can all link to the same logo.ai file — update the Illustrator source and every linked instance updates.

Camera Raw as a Smart Filter. Open a RAW file as a Smart Object in Photoshop and Camera Raw becomes a live filter. Every slider in Camera Raw is accessible, adjustable, and reversible — you’re not baking the RAW conversion into pixels.

When to use Smart Objects

Convert to Smart Object before applying any destructive filter:

  • Blur (for skin retouching, depth-of-field effect)
  • Sharpen (for output sharpening)
  • Any Distort or Warp filter
  • Camera Raw filter on a layer

The only cost: file size increases (the original pixel data is preserved inside the Smart Object container), and a few tools (the Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, direct painting) don’t work directly on Smart Objects — you either flatten or add a new empty layer above.

Smart Objects in Affinity Photo 2

Affinity Photo 2 has an equivalent: embedded documents. The behaviour is similar — embed a file, scale it non-destructively, apply live filters. The terminology differs (Affinity calls them “Embedded Documents” or uses the concept via “Live Filters”) but the principle is identical.

See also

Learn more →
Guides and how-tos Browse all glossary terms