Can you re-use layers but in different locations / dimensions?

Question

In website mockups, I design the front page, then duplicate layers constantly for other pages design. Things like the header and footer stay basically the same, so they are copied. Their exact location or dimensions may need to change, though.

Is there a way have an "asset" folder where I'm re-using an image that's already loaded in the PSD, and only modifying dimensions/coordinates? (I'd like to re-use the same layer data for responsive, just shrink it down in size - so if I change the color of the header for example, the smaller responsive header would change as well)

The goal is to get away from multiple PSDs for each page, and just have one PSD for a web project. However, the file is too large right now, but most of the size comes from tons of duplication.

Answer 1

I understand that you use many of the assets in most, if not all your designs. One idea worth considering is this:

1. Create a master PSD document, the largest possible size you may use. This can be a blank document
2. Now, find each element file original in the largest possible size and "Place" that in the master document. This is done from "File/Place" and the image will come in a resizable frame with handles
3. As the image comes, you can scale it to its natural size (holding the Shift key to maintain the original proportions)
4. When done, double click on the carrying frame and this image will be added as a new Smart Object layer.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for other images in your assets collection, all will remain on a separate layer as a smart object
6. Save this document with all the elements as a master
7. When you need to start a new project, open the master file and immediately save it with a new name reflecting the project
8. Now, you can turn any layer on or off, resize then on the fly without worrying about quality degradation since they are Smart Objects
9. If you need to add a different file for a new project, make sure to bring it in the same way by "Place" option to make sure that too comes in as a smart object

If you use Adobe Bridge, after creating the original master file, you can highlight a file in Bridge, right-click on it, and choose "Place/In Photoshop" which will bring the image as in step 2.

Clearly, you can have as many master files as you like and one file can appear in different master files.

Answer 2

Smart object (Daily Useful Repository) Smart Objects are layers that contain image data from raster or vector images, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files. Smart Objects preserve an image's source content with all its original characteristics

We can use with Innovative way

This will be helping me out with inner page designs, we can use this method for common stuff in front page to continue with all other pages (in master common smart object if there is any update - we don't need to update all files just update smart object and we are done with all files)