PSD import & export

PSD is PhotoFresco's native format: File ▸ Open reads layered Photoshop files, and File ▸ Save / Save As… writes them back — locally, without the file ever leaving your machine.

What round-trips

Opening and saving a PSD preserves the things that matter for continuing work in either app:

• The layer tree — layers, groups and their order.
• Blend modes, opacity and fill per layer.
• Layer masks and clipping masks.
• Adjustment layers and fill layers (solid, gradient, pattern).
• Layer styles / effects — drop shadows, strokes, glows, overlays, bevels (see Layer styles).
• Smart Objects with their embedded contents.
• A flattened composite is always written too, so file browsers and other apps show a correct preview even if they can't parse the layers.

Known limitations

PSD is a deep format, and we'd rather tell you exactly where the edges are than pretend there are none:

• Text layers export rasterized. Your type stays editable inside PhotoFresco, but a saved PSD currently stores the rendered pixels rather than an editable text record — plan final copy edits before handing a PSD to a Photoshop user.
• Shape layers and gradient/pattern fill layers are rasterized on export to guarantee they look identical everywhere.
• Layer styles on groups aren't supported and are dropped when importing a file that uses them (styles on ordinary layers are fine).
• Exotic adjustment types that PhotoFresco doesn't implement are skipped on import; a rare unmapped blend mode falls back to Normal.
• A few niche style features are simplified: gradient stops with off-center midpoints, pattern overlays whose pattern data isn't embedded, and the "Vector Mask Hides Effects" flag.

When something has to be dropped or simplified, the importer prefers preserving the image's appearance over failing the load.

Exporting flat images

For web-ready output use File ▸ Export ▸ Export As…:

• PNG — lossless, with transparency.
• JPEG — adjustable quality, smallest for photos.
• WebP — modern, small, with transparency and a quality slider.
• Each export can be scaled at 0.5×, 1× or 2×.

Quick Export as PNG saves a full-size PNG in one step. Printing goes through File ▸ Print….

Working tips

• Keep a PSD master and export flat copies from it — the PSD keeps masks and styles live for the next round of changes.
• Very large PSDs open fine — rendering is tiled, so a 50-layer, 4K-and-up document stays responsive — but the browser tab's memory is the practical ceiling.
• Save to My Documents (File ▸ Save to My Documents) stores the full layered document inside the browser, which is the convenient home for works-in-progress; export a .psd to disk for backups and handoffs.