Smart Objects in Photoshop CS2 and the Implications

Well, I finally got around to taking a look at Photoshop CS2, Adobe's newest version which came out about a month ago. The Adobe web site highlights some of the changes, a couple of which might get me to shell out for the update.

This is the biggest one. I use Illustrator -Adobe's vector graphic editor - and Photoshop together on almost every project I do. Some things are just much easier, or just make more sense to do with a vector object. However, up until this point Photoshop had limited vector ability. I found myself using the path tool often to accomplish quasi-vector effects. The problem was that once you added some color or strokes to the path, it became a raster graphic and then there was no way to scale it up again.

The Convergence of Vector and Raster in Photoshop CS2

I've been suspecting the ultimate convergence to vector and raster editing tools for a while, and Smart Objects is one step up from the path tool in that direction. I'm looking forward to the day they come out with Adobe Photo-strator. A Smart Object allows you to manipulate a graphic losslessly, meaning that you can make it bigger or smaller without losing quality. Finally! Plus, the Image Warp (which I will cover later) tool uses Smart Objects to allow you to manipulate a raster graphic without loss.

This improvement on image manipulation in Photoshop CS2 without loss will give graphic designers much more flexibility to experiment, and will decrease the chances of data loss by accidentally saving over a version of your image. Also, I think it will encourage designers to use vector graphics more, which will reduce issues of not having the right image resolution for uses of a graphic that weren't initially anticipated