How to Use Photoshop Templates with the Power of Smart Objects

Learn how to build a template in Photoshop that can be easily updated with Smart Objects. See how we can use smart objects to create drag-and-drop templates and a PSDT file format to enable Photoshop Templates.

Use Photoshop Templates with the Power of Smart Objects

Today we’re going to take a look at using templates in Photoshop. You’re going to see how we can customize them for your own work. Plus, we’re going to take a look at how you can use smart objects in your Photoshop templates files so that you can basically build a set of templates where you swap out images inside those templates.

So in Photoshop if you want to create a new document, you come up here to file new. And the new document window opens. But this can be kind of overwhelming, because you wouldn’t necessarily know the best practices for design and kind of want to get some idea 1st and then maybe change it and put in your own content. That’s exactly what templates are for.

So when I open the new document window. The first thing that prompts me with this ability to create a document, that’s the standard size. All these in my recent are documents that I have created in the past, but up here you have all these different categories. And these are Photoshop templates that you can use in Photoshop. And I might add that they are free, and if you look through these categories here and you don’t see anything you want,

How to Search for Adobe Stock Templates

You can come down here to the bottom and you can actually do a search. Like if I do. Web. And I say go, and these are all. Adobe Stock templates. And since I came from the category of web, that’s where I’m at right now, so I’m in the web templates on the Adobe Stock website. If you have an Adobe Stock subscription. You can license any of these. There may be some free ones here. This is where you would find more stock Photoshop templates to use.

So here is a free. Start template under the web category that I’m going to use. You can click and you can see a preview of it and then you can click download and it’ll tell you all this information about the template and you say continue. And actually licensed it for you, but it’s a free license and notice you have a blue check mark here. On that template, and that means that it has been downloaded.

I can now close this and now you can see that in my libraries here is that template that I downloaded, so it’s. There in my stock templates in my libraries. If I right-click on it and say open a new document and now we’re ready to use the template.

How to Add Images to Photoshop Templates

So let’s take a look at this template here. First of all, I think it’s a very well organized Photoshop template,s and don’t be overwhelmed by all the different objects in it. But if you hold down the alt or option key and click on this, eye on the bottom, it’s going to turn all of your layers off and when you click on any of these empty boxes here. You get the eye and that is visible. So you can cycle through each of these layers and you can see. Making each layer visible, all the objects that are in that group.

So if I choose to spin this down and see everything that’s in the tablet group and you have placeholders here, sometimes on these Photoshop templates you don’t have objects or graphics. But you have placeholders notice here in the tablet group that it says your image. Here an it is already a smart object.

So say we want to add an image here. In the tablet group, we can come up here to layer. Smart objects. Edit Contents or even easier. We can double click. On this smart object thumbnail, and we’ve actually opened up another file which is the smart object. It’s a .PSD extension and I come up here to file. Place embedded select my iPad Pro screen and say place you know I’m going to size this up here a little bit just to get that whole image in click the check Mark and I’m going to say command S to save. Command W.

Here’s my tablet image for my laptop. Here is your image here. Layer, double click and say file place embedded. Choose my screen for my laptop say place. It’s in a good spot. Click my check Mark CMD + S to save, CMD + W to close.

Notice these layers for the laptop. And this iPad that I did not have to transform my photo at all. I didn’t have to transform it to fit. I didn’t have to angle it in anyways. In other words, that’s because of the template. The way that this was constructed. So this is a good template. Sometimes you have to transform your image.

The next one I want to show you. What’s this business card. It has two images. I’m going to double click on this to open this up a file. Place embedded. Place my business card background say OK Command S command W to close that.

But now here’s another case for different kind of workflow here. The image that’s supposed to go in this business card so you can use a raw image, but this is what’s going to happen when you do that. If I double click and then if I come up here to file, place embedded and this is a DNG file where you can use any other raw file.

If I say place now because it was a raw file camera raw comes up first so I can make adjustments here. And I could say OK. And that image comes into my smart object. And if I say OK to accept. The Transform Command S command W and that brought that into the business card. I can of course move that over a little bit command S command W and something like that. I just wanted to show you what happens when you bring in a raw file, whether it’s DNG or any other raw format.

Same thing for the smartphone file place embedded PNG file. Transformation is fine. Command S command W and I have my smartphone screen in there. Here is a layer to change the smartphone case color, double click. I mean the color picker, change the color say OK and this group here assorted objects. I can click on the eye and make it invisible if I don’t want to have that in the photo. Don’t have the cactus in a photo. I can change the notebook color here. Something like that it could change the mouse pad color. Something like that. So this is what you can do with the template that you got from Adobe stock.

How to create a template file in Photoshop

So this document that we got from Adobe Stock is a template. But now I’m going to show you how to make it an actual template file. first, I’m going to save the document and so say this document here. This Photoshop templates was the standard that you wanted. You wanted a standard for a website or any other. Advertising and you can do this with a social media template, but if we make a change, say we removed the pens and pencils in the Cup. If I say command or control S right now, it’s going to save that. So I’ve written over my standard Photoshop file.

So what I need to do now is close this out without saving it and come to my file system. So here is my template. And it is a Photoshop document. But what I need to do is rename this and call it a PSDT Photoshop document template and so it’s going to ask me Are you sure you want to change the extension from PSD to PSDT and I’m going to use that PSDT now when I open it and say I want to go to the smartphone and I want to change the smartphone case color to anything else. I want to change it to. Purple, I don’t know. Say OK, and now if I say command is to try and save this. It’s going to prompt me to. Save it on my computer, but as a PSD file a new document.

So now that I changed it to a PSDT extension, if I make a change to that file it’s going to prompt me to save it as a new file. So now I really have a template file. If I need to make changes to the Photoshop templates file itself, I would need to come back to my Adobe template PSDT file and rename it. I’d have to take off the T and now I’m going to use the. .PSD Extension, open it up, and now if I wanted to change my smartphone case color again, I can make it some other color, and then I could say file save because I’m saving the PSD file, close that and so I want that to be my new standard and then I rename my PSD file to a PSDT file and it’s going to ask me if I’m sure that I want to change the extension from PSD to PSDT and I’m going to use .PSDT And there is my new standard.

If you ever want to swap out an image in your Photoshop templates file, make sure you change the extension of your template file from .PSDT to .PSD and then open up your file. And let’s say we want to change the tablet image so I’ll double click on the smart object thumbnail and I’ll say file place embedded.

Go get another image for the tablet. It’s a place I don’t need to transform it anymore, so click the checkmark to commit and I can delete the previous image and say command S command W and there I’ve changed my tablet image so there are other places to get Photoshop templates.

How to work with a Non-Adobe Photoshop Template

Let me show you what to expect when you download a template from somewhere else other than Adobe stock. So here’s the template that I found when I just did a search for free Photoshop templates. It’s a PSD file. In a first glance, one thing I noticed each of these layers here for the photos. They’re not smart objects, so the first thing I would do would be make smart objects. Out of all three of these layers, and then I would just go through and turn off all of the different layers to see what’s available.

To me, this template could be used for something like Instagram stories, so maybe if this is for your business and you want to have standard colors or standard look every time you make a post in to swap out the photos like here, turning on and off with the background color is I can click on that color. And I can change the color of the background.

So on the text layer. Here it says the font is missing. What I can do is come up here to type match font and I can have Photoshop try and guess. With this font is and I have a video on. Matching points in Photoshop and so Photoshop is searching for fonts that it thinks it looks good in. Here you can download any of these fonts if you think that they are close to matching what’s in here. If not, you can keep this font. That’s what it says. When this font is missing.

So to swap out the image. You double click on your smart object thumbnail and say file place embedded and I’ll place that in there Click to check Mark. Command S. Command W. I need to make that a little bit bigger. Double click then command T and transform this a little bit bigger hit the check Mark Command S command W and for the second image double click on the smart object save the file. Place embedded I have an image for the middle and I could just scale this up, click the checkmark to commit command S to save command W to close.

Same thing for the next image. File place embedded. Another image. Could scale that up a little bit. Click the check Mark command + S command +W and that’s how I’d work with a template. That was not an Adobe stock template. Now, remember if I wanted to make this a Photoshop templates file, I would have to save this. And then rename it. With a .PSDT extension.

See my photography website here ▶️ https://www.charlescabreraphotography.com

Here is the previous blog article ▶️ https://charlescabrera.com/photoshop-smart-objects-5-pro-tips/