The Libraries Panel in Photoshop

The Libraries panel in Photoshop (Window > Library) is a powerful way to store different assets in an easily accessible panel, which can then be quickly applied across multiple documents, shared between applications, devices, and creative teams when collaborating on projects. 

In this video (3, 2, 1, Photoshop! Three Reasons to use Libraries in Photoshop), you’ll discover three ways to improve your workflow using the Libraries panel in Photoshop! 

As was noted in the video, the Libraries panel can hold several different types of content including: 

• Graphics (including Layers, Layer Groups, and Smart Objects)
• Character styles (including font, type style, color, size, tracking, and leading)
• Layer effects/styles
• Color Swatches (fill, stroke, and foreground) and Color Themes 
• Bushes, Patterns, and Gradients
• Templates

Using Libraries Across Products — If you have saved items in the Libraries panel in other Adobe products (such as InDesign, Illustrator etc.), you will see those items in your Libraries panel in Photoshop and vice versa. If the element is understood by both products, then you can use them across applications; if however, the item being stored is specific to one application, you will not be able to use it. Note: There might be some debate over whether or not we should be able to see items in a Library that we can’t use, but I believe it’s better that we can see all of the items regardless if we can use them or not (which could potentially cause confusion and lead us to believe that they are “missing” from one Library or another).

Working Offline — Libraries, and their assets such as graphics are stored in the Cloud. Assets are also synced to the desktop so that you can work with them when off-line. Any changes made while off-line will be synced once you get back on-line. 

Viewing Assets — View assets stored in Libraries within applications such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator etc. in a browser (use the flyout menu and choose “View on Website”), or using the Creative Cloud Desktop Application. (Files > Your Libraries). Note: assets can also be added to Libraries using the CC Desktop Application.

Library Limitations — You can create as many Libraries as needed, however there is a limit of 1000 elements per Library. Technically the Libraries panel can support any size graphics (including Layer Groups that might include multiple, high resolution smart objects); however, storing a lot of really large files in your Libraries might decrease performance. If needed, use the fly-out menu on the Libraries panel to Export Libraries and archive assets when they are no longer needed.

Customizing the Library Panel — Use the icons on the Libraries panel to Filter, Group by either Type (the default) or Custom Groups (drag and drop to create custom groups as needed to organize items), and Sort between Name, Custom, or Date Modified.  Click the grid icon to toggle the item icons or as a list. Right -click (or Control -click on Mac) to view additional options for each of the assets stored in your Libraries (rename, edit, move to etc.).

Linked vs Embedded Smart Objects — Most content stored in Libraries is not “linked”, meaning that if you add or apply the item that is saved in the Library and then make a change to that content in the document, the layer style, graphic, color etc.,  will not be automatically updated in the Library. The exception is Linked Smart Objects. When you drag a graphic from the Libraries panel into the canvas, Photoshop places it as a Creative Cloud Linked Smart Object. CC Linked Smart Objects remain associated with the original asset in the Library. If the original Linked Smart Object is changed, opening a file that contains the Linked Smart Object, will display the warning to update it to the most current version of the asset.

Option -drag (Mac) | Alt -drag (Win) an asset from the Libraries panel into the canvas to place a graphic as an Embedded Smart Object. Embedded Smart Objects do not change in the Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign documents where they have been used when the original Library item is changed.

This video demonstrates Linked vs Embedded Smart Objects in Photoshop.

This video demonstrates how to use the new “Extract From Image” feature in the Libraries panel to automatically create patterns, shapes, color themes and gradients  to add to your libraries.

This video demonstrates how to search and find similar images from Adobe Stock directly from the Libraries panel.

When working with Stock, in the Properties panel, you can:

• View the asset on stock.adobe.com by clicking the asset ID (Adobe Stock File #).
• License a preview image directly from the Properties panel.
• Click Find Similar to quickly find additional stock assets on stock.adobe.com.

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