A way to convert PSD format to something Gimp can read

image photoshop gimp psd xcf
Matthew picture Matthew · Nov 13, 2011 · Viewed 13.5k times · Source

I have a bunch of PSD files (and more to come) and I want to get them into a format I can work with.

I have had (some) success reading PSDs with Gimp before but these files won't read properly.

Is there a way to convert PSDs to XCF?

I have tried IrfanView which displays the PSDs alright but no conversion to Gimp's XCF.

I read a (accepted) post on Yahoo Answers that says PNGs can support layers. Is this true? If so, how can I do this?

Answer

Yahia picture Yahia · Nov 13, 2011

PNG is a bad choice as it won't support much of the PSD features... XCF is also a bad idea since even the GIMP developers don't recommend it since it is built around the internal data structures of GIMP (which can and do change from version to version).

Lots of features (but by far NOT ALL) of PSD can be converted to TIFF which for example supports layers and some other things.

But to do such a conversion properly you will need Photoshop... it can work with and handle and save layered TIFFs without any problem... PSD has "evolved" from version to verion and has become rather complicated - it can even contain vector data etc.

For a Photoshop tutorial see http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshop/gettingstarted/index.html

Related questions

Using a CMYK PSD without Photoshop

I have run into a common, yet difficult problem. I do not use Photoshop for image manipulation. Since all my work is web-based, GIMP does what I need in 99% of the situations. The problem is that I occasionally receive PSD …

Read More
How to replicate PS multiply layer mode

Does anybody know of a good way to replicate Photoshop's multiply layer mode using either an image or CSS? I'm working on a project that has thumbnails that get a color overlay when you hover over them, but the designer …

Read More
Easy tool to decompose sprite image?

I have a lot of sprite images that contain dozens of icons. Is there an easy way to unravel the sprites into separate image files either automatically or feeding it coordinates, widths and heights?

Read More