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I am building web pages from a PSD.

The designer just made all layers on the same size canvas which makes it harder to copy into a new layer in its intended size.

What could be a good work flow to get to the logo and reuse it?

What I normally do is the following 1. Copy the original 2. Delete all unecessary layers 3. Roughtly crop what I need 4. Get in closer and crop until I have a more desirable size.

But I imagine there has to be a more efficient way to get the element that I need.

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  • I'd have the designer handle this. They should be sending individual image elements/sprite files with the PSDs.
    – DA01
    Dec 26, 2012 at 0:24
  • Ideall, yes @DA01, but on a deadline and cannot wait. So have to do it on my own for now.
    – JGallardo
    Dec 26, 2012 at 0:25

3 Answers 3

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Duplicate all the desired layers (or select if you don't mind), then convert them to a smart object. if you open the smart object it is already precisely cropped and you can just export.

Another little trick: I sometimes use slices inside those smart objects. That way I can have different slice sets in one PSD file and still maintain the main file slice-free.

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  • This worked awesome.
    – JGallardo
    Dec 27, 2012 at 1:32
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If the PSD just contains the logo, then simply use the rectangular marquee tool to select the logo and then crop.

If the PSD is part of a larger composition, then select the layer group containing the logo layers and duplicate it. In the duplicate layer dialog, select "New" document. Then crop the new document to the logo's size.

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Option-Command-Click on the layer thumbnail allows you to select just what's on the layer. Then you copy that, create a new Photoshop document, and paste. That should give you a document exactly the size of the item in question, with your item in the middle.

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  • I can see where you were going with this technique. However, in my scenario with this document that I was assigned, every layer was built on the same size canvas. So I ended up having to do Image --> Trim (based on transparent pixels)
    – JGallardo
    Dec 27, 2012 at 1:28

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