- [Instructor] If you often use these same assets
like layer styles or fonts or colors and gradients,
even brushes or graphics,
like logos or items that you put in multiple documents
over and over again,
then the Libraries panel can be a powerful way
to store these different design elements
so that you can quickly apply them
across multiple documents.
The other advantage of using the Libraries panel
to store assets is that they're automatically saved
in the cloud so that you can access them from any machine
where you sign in with your Adobe ID.
You can also share them with other people.
So we're going to start by creating
a library from this document.
If we take a look at some of the layers,
you'll notice that we have a gradient fill layer.
We also have some shape layers that are different colors,
and they have a layer effect, in this case,
the inner shadow applied to them.
Then we have a photograph here,
which I'll just hide for now.
We've got the bird up in the sky,
as well as a rectangular edge around the entire image.
All right, we could just click to create
a new library in the Libraries panel,
but that would just be a blank library.
And then we would need to add all of these different assets
or colors or layer effects manually.
So in order to save some work,
I'm just going to create a new library
from this specific document.
When I do that, Photoshop is going to show me,
well, there aren't any character styles,
so it's not going to import any,
but it has found some colors and some layer styles.
There aren't any smart objects,
but it's also found a gradient.
So when we create this new library,
we can see all of those colors and gradients
and the layer style that it automatically created.
Now, your Library panel might not look like this.
It depends on what your group option is.
So I have it set to type,
but there's also the option to create your own groups.
For now, I'll leave it set to type.
We can also filter our Libraries,
as well as display them as either a list or these icons.
So here we see all of the different colors
that it picked up from the colors
that were used in the document,
as well as this gradient and the layer style.
For now, I'll just close the layer style and the gradient.
You should know that you can rename any of these colors.
Just be a little careful because if you're on a layer,
for example, I'm on a shape layer,
if I click on a color, it's going to automatically
change the color of that shape layer.
So I'll use Command + Z in order to undo that,
and if I wanted to rename it,
I would just click down here in the hex value.
All right, let's see how we can add
some additional items to our library.
I'm going to start by tapping the T key,
and I have the type settings
set to proxima nova light 100-point.
I want that center aligned,
and let's select a lighter color for now.
Then I'll just click in the image area here,
and I'm going to type in, Canyonlands.
I'll go ahead and commit to that type.
Now, if I think that I'm going to use
these character settings over and over again,
then I can save them as part of my library.
Down at the bottom of the Libraries panel,
there's a plus icon.
We can see that I can add the character style.
I could add it as a graphic,
but that would actually add the text as a graphic.
I don't want that.
I want the character style,
so that next time I need to apply those same settings,
I'll have it.
So let's move to the move tool by tapping the V key.
And I'm just going to reposition Canyonlands.
Now, let's say I'm working on a different document
or I've just done something else with my type tool
and I have different settings.
So in this case, I'm going to make sure
that I don't have a type layer selected,
and then I'm just going to reset the tool.
So now when I add additional type to this image,
it's just going to add it at the default settings.
I'll type in, National Park,
but we can see, it's very small.
I'll go ahead and commit to it.
And with one click, I can choose that character style
that I saved in the library,
and it will reformat that text.
I'll go ahead and select both of these layers,
and then tap the V key to select the move tool.
And let's go ahead and just align these,
and then reposition them in the image area.
All right, I want a little bit more space,
so I'll just select the National Park,
and use my arrow keys to just nudge that down a bit.
So in addition to what's already been added
to the Libraries panel, I can add graphics.
So for example, I could select this rock layer,
and I could add it.
So we can add not only photographs, but also smart objects,
individual layers, or layer groups
even to our Libraries panel.
Although I'd be a little careful,
you may not want to add 50 high-resolution photographs
to a single library because it might just slow down
the performance a little bit.
Okay, so to add this rock, I'll click on the plus icon.
It will add it as a graphic in this little graphic category,
but we know that it's just this photograph on the layer.
Now, let's say you have a logo
or something that you use over and over again.
In this example, I'm going to use the bird as the example.
It's on its own layer here, and I'm going to add it as well.
Here I have the option to add it as a graphic,
and we can see it's right here.
And I'm actually going to delete it from the Layers panel
by just dragging it to the trash,
because it's important to know how the Libraries panel works
with graphics like the bird
when you drag them from the panel
into your different documents.
So by default, Photoshop is going to add this
as a Creative Cloud linked object,
and we can see in the Layers panel,
there's a little cloud icon,
and that means that this layer is now linked
with the graphic in my library.
So if I double-click on the graphic in my library,
it will open it up in its own document.
And if I were to change the color of that bird
and then save those changes, and then close this file,
because the Canyonlands image was open,
Photoshop is going to automatically update that graphic.
Now, if we had closed the Canyonlands image,
then the next time it was open, Photoshop would warn us
that the graphic in the library had been updated,
but it wouldn't update it automatically for us.
In that case, we would need to go to the Layer menu,
and we could choose smart objects,
and we'd have the option to update the modified content.
We could also do that from the Layers panel
because there would be a little warning icon here,
and so you could right-click, and again,
you could choose to update the modified content.
We're just not getting that option
because the file was open.
So you might not want that to be the way
that the Libraries panel works
with the graphics that you've stored in it.
If that's the case,
you can hold down the Option key on the Mac
or the Alt key on Windows, and then drag in the graphic.
When you drag the graphic like this
with that keyboard modifier,
now we can see in the Layers panel
that we don't have that same cloud icon
that we have on the other one.
So that tells me that it's not linked.
So if we go in and we double-click
on the bird graphic again,
bringing it up in its own document and change the color,
this time, when I choose to save this,
it's only going to update the original bird
that has the link with the Creative Cloud.
It's not going to update this one.
All right, let's go ahead and throw away that second bird.
We don't really need it.
At any time, if you want to delete an asset,
you can right-click on it
and then choose delete from the menu,
and that will go ahead and delete it from the library.
Now, with the exception of the graphics
that are added from the library into an image,
as those Creative Cloud links objects,
it's important to point out that
if you change the contents of the library, or for example,
if you change the color, in this case, of a shape
and that color had been stored in the library,
you can see that they're not connected.
So one of them doesn't update the other.
It's only those graphics that you drag
from the Libraries panel into your document
that are going to be linked
as those Creative Cloud linked smart objects.
All right, I'm going to undo that change in color.
And there you go.
The next time that you know
that you're going to want to reuse the same assets,
be sure to store them in the Libraries panel
in order to have them accessible
across all of your documents and devices.