Can Photoshop Batch Replace Smart Objects?

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Yes—you can batch-replace Smart Object contents in Photoshop. A practical way to do it is with Batch-Replace Smart Objects: Mockups In Bulk, a Photoshop plugin that takes a folder of artwork, inserts each file into the intended Smart Object layer or layers, and exports the resulting mockups automatically.

The important distinction is between replacing contents once and automating the entire replacement-and-export cycle. For bulk mockup production, you need the second: every design processed through your template, correctly sized, and saved as a separate finished result.

What Photoshop replaces—and what the plugin automates

Photoshop’s native Replace Contents operation is the building block. It changes the content of a Smart Object, allowing a properly constructed mockup to display new artwork through the existing outer transformations.

Batch-Replace Smart Objects automates the production sequence around that replacement. You supply a PSD or PSB mockup template, an artwork folder, placement settings, and an output destination. The plugin processes the supported artwork files and exports a finished mockup for each one.

For example, one frame mockup and 30 artwork files normally produce 30 finished mockups. You do not need to create 30 copies of the template beforehand or manually choose the next artwork after each export.

This is plugin-assisted automation inside Photoshop—not a claim that the individual Replace Contents command is itself a complete folder-driven mockup generator.

Why the manual replacement cycle becomes tedious

A single Smart Object replacement is manageable. The repetition becomes the problem when every design needs the same treatment.

For each artwork, the manual cycle involves selecting the target Smart Object, replacing its contents, checking the fit, exporting the completed scene, and giving the output a useful filename. Then you return to the template and repeat the process for the next design. Another mockup scene means doing the same work again.

The creative decisions may remain unchanged throughout the job: the same template, the same placement rule, the same output format, and the same naming convention. Yet the opening, selecting, replacing, saving, and switching still have to happen for every combination.

The plugin’s practical advantage is that you configure those decisions once for the operation. It then carries out the repeated replacement and export steps across the artwork folder.

Prepare the Smart Objects that should receive the artwork

Your mockup must be a PSD or PSB containing at least one Smart Object layer. The plugin replaces content within that template; it does not create a mockup scene from an ordinary image.

Target selection depends on how many Smart Objects the document contains:

You can select several targets, but they receive the same current artwork. For example, selecting two framed-print Smart Objects makes the current design appear in both frames before one finished scene is exported. It does not produce a separate output for each selected layer, and it does not assign a different artwork file to each frame.

For recurring jobs or a folder of templates, save each PSD or PSB with its intended Smart Object layers selected. That selection state helps define the targets when the plugin reopens the template later.

Keep the mockup’s transformations outside the Smart Object

For replacement artwork to inherit the intended perspective, distortion, or other outer transformation, convert the design layer into a Smart Object before applying those transformations.

Transforming an ordinary layer first and converting it afterward can bake the transformed appearance into the inner content. Replacement artwork may then appear flat rather than inheriting the intended perspective. The plugin automates replacement; it does not rebuild an incorrectly constructed template.

Run an artwork folder through one Photoshop mockup

With Batch-Replace Smart Objects installed, open it through Photoshop’s Plugins menu and use the Automation Setup tab. A straightforward single-template operation looks like this:

  1. Select Photoshop Document To Use and choose your PSD or PSB mockup.
  2. Confirm the intended Smart Object selection if the template contains several Smart Objects.
  3. Select Input Folder To Use and choose the folder containing your artwork.
  4. Choose an Image Placement mode. For Contain Inside Smart Object or Fill Smart Object & Crop, also choose the placement position.
  5. Select Output Folder To Use, choose the filename order, and set the export format and Quality.
  6. Click Run This Now.

The plugin processes each supported artwork file, replaces the target Smart Object contents, and exports the completed mockup. When several targets are selected, it replaces all of them with the current artwork before exporting that result.

Supported artwork inputs include JPEG/JPG, PNG, PDF, TIFF/TIF, PSD, PSB, GIF, AI, EPS, SVG, and WEBP. Unsupported files are ignored. The batch uses supported files directly inside the selected input folder rather than recursively searching nested artwork folders.

Before a large run, use a folder containing a few representative designs: perhaps a portrait image, a landscape image, and a design with important content close to an edge. Check the exported results before processing the full collection. This reveals placement problems while the test is still small.

Understand what the four placement modes actually change

Batch replacement is only useful when the inserted artwork fits the mockup correctly. The plugin offers four placement modes, and their differences matter when source files have different dimensions or proportions.

The sizing reference is the existing content inside the target Smart Object: its internal width, height, and resolution. It is not simply the Smart Object’s visible size in the outer mockup scene.

Consider a 2000 × 1000 landscape image going into a 1000 × 1000 square Smart Object. Stretch makes it square, changing its proportions. Contain produces a 1000 × 500 image inside the square, leaving unused vertical space. Fill covers the square without distortion, but some left and right content is lost.

Alignment determines where space or cropping falls

Contain and Fill provide nine placement positions: Top, Center, or Bottom combined with Left, Center, or Right. The default is Center / Center.

With Contain, the position determines where the artwork sits within the remaining space. With Fill, it determines which part of the oversized artwork survives the crop. For a wide image cropped to a square, Center / Left preserves more of the left side, while Center / Right preserves more of the right side.

The position control does not apply to Stretch To Fit or Place Original Image. Also, unnecessary transparent canvas inside the Smart Object affects the sizing reference. If replacements appear unexpectedly small or large, inspect the internal content dimensions rather than only the outer mockup.

Apply the same batch to several PSD or PSB templates

You do not have to run each mockup template separately. Switch from Photoshop Document To Use to Folder of PSD Files To Use and select the folder containing your PSD and PSB mockups.

The plugin processes every valid PSD or PSB directly inside that folder. For each template, it runs the complete artwork folder. Other file types in the template folder are ignored, and nested folders are not recursively searched.

The output count is the number of templates multiplied by the number of artwork files. Three templates and 20 designs normally produce 60 finished mockups.

This mode applies one operation configuration across the template collection: the same placement mode, output destination, filename order, export format, and Quality setting. Each selected Smart Object’s internal sizing information is handled independently, so the target regions do not have to share identical dimensions.

Before running the collection, check templates containing multiple Smart Objects and save their intended target selections. Folder mode automates moving through the templates; it does not guess which of several unselected Smart Objects you intended to replace.

Know what gets saved and how the outputs are named

The operation exports derivative mockup files to your chosen Output Folder. The source PSD or PSB mockup is not automatically saved over with every artwork replacement, so the reusable template is not permanently turned into each generated design.

Output filenames combine the artwork name and the template name, without their original extensions. For example, ocean-print.png inserted into frame-scene.psd can produce ocean-print_frame-scene.jpg.

You can reverse that order to produce frame-scene_ocean-print.jpg. Artwork-first naming groups results naturally by design; template-first naming groups them by mockup scene. If an intended output filename already exists, the plugin generates a numbered alternative rather than blindly overwriting it.

JPEG and PNG are useful image-delivery options. PSD export is also supported and preserves layers, so batch replacement is not limited to producing JPEG previews.

The interface uses a 0–12 Quality scale. For JPEG, that corresponds directly to Photoshop’s JPEG quality setting. PNG remains lossless; its setting changes compression rather than introducing JPEG-style image degradation.

Save the decisions that should not change between jobs

Once a configuration produces the right results, save it as a Batch instead of reconstructing it for the next production run.

A Saved Batch retains the operation mode, template file or template folder, artwork folder, output folder, placement mode, placement position, filename order, export type, and Quality. In the Batches tab, Run Batch restores that configuration and runs it again.

The artwork folder is read when the operation runs. That means an updated set of files in the same folder can be processed without rebuilding the saved setup. The referenced files and folders still need to remain accessible.

For recurring production with several different configurations, use a Workflow. A Batch stores one operation; a Workflow stores a sequence of complete operations. One step might generate framed-print mockups with Contain placement, while another generates a different scene with Fill placement and a different output destination.

Each Workflow step keeps its own settings, and a step can process either one template or a folder of templates. Run Full Workflow executes the stored steps sequentially, avoiding the need to manually launch and configure each part of the job.

So, can Photoshop batch replace Smart Objects? Yes—with Batch-Replace Smart Objects, you can turn an artwork folder into exported mockups using one template or a collection of templates. Find Batch-Replace Smart Objects: Mockups In Bulk through Adobe Exchange or Adobe’s Creative Cloud plugin marketplace, begin with a small test batch, and save the setup once the targets and placement produce the results you want.