Trouble when exporting to PSD

[Zainab Abbas]

HELP!

I have been trying to export a file to PSD for hours now, its not exporting properly. The exported PSD document has half the contents. I need to send it to a client and they only work with PSD. 
its so frustrating.

[R C-R]

From your top screenshot, it looks like you are exporting 5 slices, so you should get 5 different files if you click the "Export Slices (5)" button at the bottom of the Slices panel, one for each slice.

I think what you want instead is to export the first item in the panel (named "Background") -- it is the only slice without a checkmark, & the only one you need to export if you want everything in one file.

Or more simply, just use the File > Export option in the Designer persona.

[walt.farrell]

That may be correct, @R C-R, but I'm puzzled by the second screenshot which seems to show that the first object was exported only partially. It looks like the top portion is missing.

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

.... but I'm puzzled by the second screenshot which seems to show that the first object was exported only partially.

I had not noticed that. So maybe my suggestion is totally off the mark. 😞

[Alfred]

21 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

…. but I'm puzzled by the second screenshot which seems to show that the first object was exported only partially.

 

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I had not noticed that.

The OP referred explicitly to this being the nub of the issue:

3 hours ago, Zainab Abbas said:

The exported PSD document has half the contents.

 

[Zainab Abbas]

6 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

The OP referred explicitly to this being the nub of the issue:

 

yes please thats my only issue,  in the photoshop image i showed only one of the slices. However many ways i rearrange my layers it just randomly chooses some of them in the PSD file.

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

The OP referred explicitly to this being the nub of the issue:

I get that now, but when I first read it, I mistakenly interpreted "half the contents" as referring to the contents of the entire document, not to any individual slice.

2 hours ago, Zainab Abbas said:

yes please thats my only issue,  in the photoshop image i showed only one of the slices. However many ways i rearrange my layers it just randomly chooses some of them in the PSD file.

What does the Layers panel look like when you are in the Designer persona, & when you are in the Export persona?

[Zainab Abbas]

This is the layers panel for the artboard I showed above.
from what I have figured out, there are too many layers for the application to process and convert to PSD. as each vector flower has its own little elements to make the design. 
for now i ended up exporting each group of elements separately and arrange them in Photoshop. but that's very tedious!

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, Zainab Abbas said:

from what I have figured out, there are too many layers for the application to process and convert to PSD. as each vector flower has its own little elements to make the design. 

Any idea roughly how many layers in total you have in that artboard? I am not aware of any specific limitation on how many layers a PSD export from Affinity can handle but maybe the Affinity QA people could test for this & see what the approximate limit is, if there is one.

[Zainab Abbas]

no idea. Is there any way to calculate? 
I think the limit  for psd is 8888 according to the dialogue box i just saw.

Maybe its because in Photoshop a larger file is saved as PSB rather than PSD, that may be causing the issue

 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Zainab Abbas said:

Is there any way to calculate? 

None that I know of.

[Dan C]

Welcome to the Affinity Forums @Zainab Abbas,

I can confirm that the PSD file format has the following limitations:

30,000px x 30,000px and max file size of 2GB.

Can you please confirm for me, what are the file sizes of the .PSD files exported from Affinity?

9 hours ago, Zainab Abbas said:

Maybe its because in Photoshop a larger file is saved as PSB rather than PSD, that may be causing the issue

I do believe this is the case - unfortunately Affinity is unable to export to PSB, so it will be exporting your files to PSD until it hits the 2GB limit, and then the file has to be saved, potentially missing content.

My apologies but we're not able to increase the size of PSD export or export to PSB currently, so if you require these document sizes I would recommend exporting to a different format in Affinity.

I hope this helps

[Zainab Abbas]

hello!

3 hours ago, Dan C said:

Welcome to the Affinity Forums @Zainab Abbas,

I can confirm that the PSD file format has the following limitations:

30,000px x 30,000px and max file size of 2GB.

Can you please confirm for me, what are the file sizes of the .PSD files exported from Affinity?

I do believe this is the case - unfortunately Affinity is unable to export to PSB, so it will be exporting your files to PSD until it hits the 2GB limit, and then the file has to be saved, potentially missing content.

My apologies but we're not able to increase the size of PSD export or export to PSB currently, so if you require these document sizes I would recommend exporting to a different format in Affinity.

I hope this helps

Thankyou
 

I understand that it has got limitations my artboard was 42" x 100" at 300dpi showing 12,600 x 30000px

but i am just looking at the new photoshop file i created by exporting my affinity document in layers its shows to be just 335 mb. i am confused.

[Zainab Abbas]

i also feel like with the new update affinity is getting stuck too often processing my files. it wasnt like this before. is there any way to downgrade?

[Dan C]

1 hour ago, Zainab Abbas said:

but i am just looking at the new photoshop file i created by exporting my affinity document in layers its shows to be just 335 mb. i am confused.

I don't believe this is the file you have exported from Affinity - as this is shown in your screenshot as a '.PSB' file, which Affinity cannot export to.
Affinity can only export to the .PSD format currently, which has the aforementioned limitations.

1 hour ago, Zainab Abbas said:

i also feel like with the new update affinity is getting stuck too often processing my files. it wasnt like this before. is there any way to downgrade?

I'm sorry to hear this, before we try installing an older version we can look to improve the performance in 1.10 if you wish - could you please provide a screenshot from Edit > Preferences > Performance for me?

[Zainab Abbas]

7 minutes ago, Dan C said:

I don't believe this is the file you have exported from Affinity - as this is shown in your screenshot as a '.PSB' file, which Affinity cannot export to.
Affinity can only export to the .PSD format currently, which has the aforementioned limitations.

I'm sorry to hear this, before we try installing an older version we can look to improve the performance in 1.10 if you wish - could you please provide a screenshot from Edit > Preferences > Performance for me?

I exported seperate layers in psd's from affinity and just placed them on Phototshop. The eventual file saved as PSB. I just exported again its 248 mb and the contents are still missing.

 

 

[R C-R]

15 hours ago, Zainab Abbas said:

I think the limit  for psd is 8888 according to the dialogue box i just saw.

Where did you see this dialog box?

I tried searching for the maximum possible number of layers in a PSD format file on the web, but I could not find anything definitive about that. There was some mention of an 8000 layer limit, but I think that was a limitation of certain older versions of PS, not for the *.psd format itself.

Since your file exported from Affinity does not exceed the max pixel dimensions or (I assume) the max file size for the *.psd file format, my guess is there is some layer limit involved, although I don't know if this is something imposed in Affinity or by the format.

[Zainab Abbas]

sorry i meant 8000

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Where did you see this dialog box?

I tried searching for the maximum possible number of layers in a PSD format file on the web, but I could not find anything definitive about that. There was some mention of an 8000 layer limit, but I think that was a limitation of certain older versions of PS, not for the *.psd format itself.

Since your file exported from Affinity does not exceed the max pixel dimensions or (I assume) the max file size for the *.psd file format, my guess is there is some layer limit involved, although I don't know if this is something imposed in Affinity or by the format.

 

this dialogue box once came up once. the rest of the times it either doesnt export anything (without showing error) when i click the export button or it exports incomplete contents.

 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Zainab Abbas said:

this dialogue box once came up once. the rest of the times it either doesnt export anything (without showing error) when i click the export button or it exports incomplete contents.

So it looks like there is an 8000 layer limit, at least in what Affinity can export to the *.psd format. It is weird though that you do not get that warning every time, or that sometimes nothing is exported.

You probably do not want to post your AD file to this or any public forum but possibly the Affinity staff could offer a private dropbox link so you can submit it to them so they can see if they can duplicate your issue. Or failing that maybe one of the staff could create an AD document with 8000+ layers & see what happens on export.

[Zainab Abbas]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

So it looks like there is an 8000 layer limit, at least in what Affinity can export to the *.psd format. It is weird though that you do not get that warning every time, or that sometimes nothing is exported.

You probably do not want to post your AD file to this or any public forum but possibly the Affinity staff could offer a private dropbox link so you can submit it to them so they can see if they can duplicate your issue. Or failing that maybe one of the staff could create an AD document with 8000+ layers & see what happens on export.

yeah! thanks for your help!
im waiting for their response

[wonderings]

I have no answer but this is one of the issues trying to collaborate across different software from different developers. I know it does not help you now but if this is something that you will be regularly doing it might be a smart idea to work with Photoshop and know that you are not going to run into issues exporting too PSD from Affinity Photo. The potential headaches are huge and if one little thing goes missing between conversion and it goes out to print, or whatever you are doing with the end result it can be very costly. 

Hope you are able to find a solution, nothing worse then figuring out weird issues while a deadline looms! 

[Zainab Abbas]

3 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I have no answer but this is one of the issues trying to collaborate across different software from different developers. I know it does not help you now but if this is something that you will be regularly doing it might be a smart idea to work with Photoshop and know that you are not going to run into issues exporting too PSD from Affinity Photo. The potential headaches are huge and if one little thing goes missing between conversion and it goes out to print, or whatever you are doing with the end result it can be very costly. 

Hope you are able to find a solution, nothing worse then figuring out weird issues while a deadline looms! 

I agree with you, I didn't know this client would request a psd so I made it in affinity designer, because I am so comfortable with the workflow in AD I don't want to move back to PS and AI. 

[wonderings]

1 minute ago, Zainab Abbas said:

I agree with you, I didn't know this client would request a psd so I made it in affinity designer, because I am so comfortable with the workflow in AD I don't want to move back to PS and AI. 

Thankfully only a very small number of my clients ever request a working file. Not really an issue for me as I work with Adobe so it is a standard format but I do understand the frustration. If you can work faster and better and produce the same quality of work for a fraction of the cost of Adobe I would hate hitting that brick wall when someone needs a format that is not native. 

[R C-R]

19 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I know it does not help you now but if this is something that you will be regularly doing it might be a smart idea to work with Photoshop and know that you are not going to run into issues exporting too PSD from Affinity Photo.

However, it is not clear (at least to me) if there is an 8000 layer limit imposed by the *.psd format or by Affinity's exporter, or if Affinity supported the *.psb format it would still be necessary to use PS to avoid issues like this.

[Dan C]

On 8/13/2021 at 4:03 PM, Zainab Abbas said:

Thanks for your screenshot provided and my apologies for the delayed response here!

Please try changing the following settings:

View Quality - set this to Nearest Neighbour

Retina Rendering  - set this to Low Quality (fastest)

I also recommend making sure you have the latest driver installed for your RTX2060, as outdated drivers can cause delays whilst using the Affinity app.
During installation of the driver, please select 'Custom Installation' and then 'Perform a clean install' as this will remove all previous drivers from your system and ensure Affinity is using the latest.

On 8/13/2021 at 5:04 PM, R C-R said:

I tried searching for the maximum possible number of layers in a PSD format file on the web, but I could not find anything definitive about that. There was some mention of an 8000 layer limit, but I think that was a limitation of certain older versions of PS, not for the *.psd format itself.

As I understand it, it's the .PSD format itself which is hard limited to 8000 layers, however Adobe 'recommend' a layer limit of 100 layers based on CPU, RAM etc - I believe that PS begins to run slowly with many more layers than this, hence their recommendations.

@Zainab Abbas, As R C-R has mentioned, please find an upload link below where you can provide the .afdesign file shown in your screenshots - I suspect the best way to resolve this will be to combine/merge certain layers so that we can export below the 8000 layer limit, but I will need to see your file to confirm this -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/SnkhNzJ8MHiaUMB92J5r

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know, many thanks in advance once again