PSD Files & Color Profiles
ArcBrush opens PSD files (.psd, and .psb for large documents) as one flattened picture, saves flat PSDs that open in any editor that reads the format, and converts every imported image through the color profile saved inside it. This page covers what comes in, what goes out, and what is refused.
Opening a PSD
Section titled “Opening a PSD”A PSD opens anywhere an image does: Image In, Image Folder (its default File Pattern includes *.psd and *.psb), Texture Folder, a drop on the canvas, a pasted file, a dropped link to a PSD, and Open with from your file manager (see File Management). Folders that mix PSDs with other images load like any other folder.
You get the flattened picture, not the layers. A PSD stores a flattened copy of the document beside its layers, and that copy is what ArcBrush reads. Image In’s Source row says PSD, flattened, so a missing layer stack is never a surprise. Layers, masks, adjustment layers, text, and smart objects are not read.
Transparency is kept. A document whose layers leave transparent pixels opens with that transparency, with straight (unmatted) color at its edges.
Color modes and bit depths
Section titled “Color modes and bit depths”| Mode | How it opens |
|---|---|
| RGB | As saved, at 8, 16, or 32 bits per channel. |
| Grayscale | As a one-channel picture (Output Format decides whether it stays gray). |
| Indexed | Through its palette; a transparent index becomes transparent pixels. |
| Bitmap | Black and white. |
| Duotone | Its gray base. |
| CMYK | Through the CMYK profile saved in the file. A file with no profile uses a plain approximate conversion, and Image In notes “No CMYK profile embedded; colors are approximate”. |
| Lab | Converted to RGB. |
A 16-bit or 32-bit document keeps its precision in a 32-bit (Float) project and is rounded to 8 bits in an 8-bit one, the same as a 16-bit PNG. A 32-bit PSD is read as scene-linear color.
What is refused, and why
Section titled “What is refused, and why”- A PSD saved without Maximize Compatibility. The file then holds only a placeholder for the flattened copy, and ArcBrush will not guess at your layers. Image In reports: “This PSD was saved without a flattened image. Re-save it in Photoshop with Maximize Compatibility on.” (In Photoshop, Preferences > File Handling > Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility can be set to Always.)
- Multichannel documents. The message names the mode.
- ZIP-compressed composites. The message names the compression. Re-save with the default (RLE) compression or none.
- Files over the size limits every image import obeys, checked from the header before anything is loaded.
An Image Folder keeps loading the rest of the folder past a refused PSD. A refusal you can fix (no flattened image, Multichannel, ZIP compression) shows on its frame as <filename>: <reason>. Any other refused file, such as one over the size limits, shows as Failed to decode: <filename>; open it in Image In to see the reason. A Texture Folder names the file and its map beside a refusal you can fix.
Saving a PSD
Section titled “Saving a PSD”Export Image and Export Batch offer PSD in their Format list, and Export Image’s Auto format writes one when the file name ends in .psd.
- 8 or 16 bits per channel, RGB or Grayscale, following the image’s channels and the Bit Depth row (8-bit unless you pick 16-bit, which a 32-bit (Float) project offers as it does for PNG and TIFF). A 32-bit (Float) picture is rounded to the depth you choose; use OpenEXR for a float file.
- Transparency is real. An opaque image saves as a single Background. An image with transparency saves one full-canvas layer plus the flattened copy, so it opens transparent in Photoshop, Affinity, Krita, and GIMP instead of carrying an extra “Alpha 1” channel.
- An sRGB profile is embedded, so the file’s colors read the same everywhere.
- The file is flat: one layer at most. Recipes are not embedded in a PSD; use PNG, WebP, TIFF, or JPEG with Embed Recipe for that.
- PSD is not offered by Export Texture, destination presets, or sprite sheets.
Embedded color profiles
Section titled “Embedded color profiles”Every image import, not only PSD, reads the color profile saved in the file and converts through it: a PNG’s embedded profile, a JPEG’s, a TIFF’s, a WebP’s, and a PSD’s. An Adobe RGB or Display P3 photo therefore lands with the colors it was saved to show, instead of looking washed out.
- sRGB files and files with no profile are untouched, byte for byte. A profile that describes sRGB under another name counts as sRGB.
- In an 8-bit project the converted colors are sRGB values, with anything outside sRGB clipped.
- In a 32-bit (Float) project wide-gamut colors survive: values outside the sRGB range are kept, then carried into the project’s working space.
- An Input Color Space you choose on the node wins over the file’s profile, as does a data role such as Normal Map. The profile is then not read.
- Image In’s Profile row names a converted profile, for example
Adobe RGB (1998), converted. Nothing appears on the node itself, because nothing is wrong. - A profile ArcBrush cannot read is ignored, the picture imports as sRGB, and the Parameters panel says so.
- Brush images keep their own sRGB rule.
A project saved before this change whose Image In points at a wide-gamut file cooks with the corrected color when you open it; files tagged sRGB or untagged come out exactly as before. For how imported color meets the working space and your display, see Color & Bit Depth.