PSD
PSD is the native layered raster graphics file format of the Adobe Photoshop program line. The format has gone through multiple versions, each being downwards (but not always upwards) compatible.
PSD is a partially-documented proprietary format. It is very large and complex. Despite this, decoding the primary image of a PSD file is often fairly simple. If an application claims to support PSD, that could mean just about anything.
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Format details
Compression
Images are usually compressed with PackBits, or uncompressed. "Zip" compression, which apparently means zlib, is also supported.
Text encoding
PSD files often contain both Unicode and non-Unicode text. It's not clear whether there is a good way to determine the encoding of the non-Unicode text. Some sources claim MacRoman, which is true in many cases, but other encodings have been observed.
Identification
PSD files begin with bytes '8' 'B' 'P' 'S' 0x00 0x01.
See Also
- PSB
- PhotoDeluxe (PDD)
See Photoshop for other related formats.
Specifications
- Adobe Photoshop File Formats Specification (current version)
- Photoshop File Formats Specification V6.0 Release 2
- PHOTOSDK.PDF - Adobe Photoshop 3.0.4 SDK
- ADOBE.TXT - Photoshop 3.0.4 File Format
- PHOTOSHP.TXT - Adobe Photoshop 2.5 File Format
- PSD.rb: Anatomy of a PSD File
Software
Viewers, editors, and converters
Libraries and tools
Sample files
- "Free PSD" websites are abundant. Some examples:
- tombexcavator samples
- dexvert samples — image/psd
Links
See also Photoshop#Links.
- Wikipedia: Adobe Photoshop#File format
- Adobe Photoshop website
- Adobe Photoshop File Format Summary, from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
- Open-Source PSD import code from GIMP
Commentary
- Rant about PSD format in comments of a program's source code
- Some thoughts about the PSD format, in response to above's comments
