I’m currently testing alternatives to Adobe and had questions on images and image linking.
Brand images are often approved by the client, so when updated, they have to be updated everywhere they’re used - for example, many instances across many Sketch files.
Questions
How do you update images in Sketch?
How do you reveal an image in the Desktop from Sketch?
I can’t find any asset link info, so it looks like you can’t get from Sketch to an image file?
And after testing, it looks like you have to manually replace updated images one-by-one, in every Sketch file they’re used - is that correct?
Any pointers in the right direction much appreciated.
Hi Ben.
When you place an image into Sketch, to use Adobe terms and behaviours you’re more used to, the image is not “linked” but rather it is “embedded” into the document. So there is no connection between the image in the document and the original source where it came from.
But that still doesn’t mean that if you use that image multiple times in multiple documents, then you would have to replace them all individually, one at a time. No, not at all. There’s a simple solution that closely emulates the linked-image behaviour you’re used to. All you have to do is place your image into your document, and then turn that image into a Symbol. Then you can place as many “Instances” of this Symbol as you wish throughout your document. And if you want to use the Image/Symbol across multiple different documents, you can set up a separate Library to host the Symbol, and drop in Instances of that Library Symbol into any other document.
If you decide that you want to update the image across all your Instances, then go to the Source for that Symbol, and replace it there just the once only. Once that is saved, then the changes will be automatically and instantly reflected in all the other multiple Instances of the Symbol across all of your documents, with no further requirements from you.
Admittedly, in order to replace the image on the Source Symbol, you will need to do that one manually, as it is embedded. But you can do so easily simply by selecting the image and then choosing Layer > Image > Replace from the menu (or the same option when right-clicking on the image).
I hope this helps, and if there’s anything else you need, please do ask.
One time-saving feature of the Adobe ecosystem is that you can also reveal an asset’s location from within app. We have organised image and logo libraries so we can always find assets but going directly to an asset from the app is a lot faster - particularly when you’re doing it all day!
I couldn’t see an option for this - is this kind of round-trip workflow possible in Sketch?
Hi Ben. If you use Symbols as described above, then yes, you can definitely do this.
With the Symbol Instance selected, simply select Layer > Edit, which will take you to the source.
If you mean an external image, then no, because as mentioned before, there is no link maintained once the image has been embedded into the document. But in this case, what you might also find useful is that you can simply drag an image from your Finder (or an image-management application like Adobe Bridge) over your image in Sketch to replace it.
Thanks @Brett, I fully understand symbols, was also trying to understand the image editing workflow. Just confirming that because there a no links per se, you can’t initiate image editing from within Sketch. Cheers