Use Photoshop .PSD as default save method for Affinity Photo

[yellowsaber]

When working with others we use .PSD because its so universal, not .afphoto however being able to set .PSD as the main file format for a project instead of having to re-export files would be appreciated. I don't know if thats possible or not with the way .PSD operate but I hope so, it would save a lot of file saves.

[walt.farrell]

If you Open a .psd file you can Save it directly after making changes, if you have enabled that option in Settings, General.

It is dangerous to do that, however, as Affinity cannot save 100% compatible PSD files. For example, text will always be rasterized.

[yellowsaber]

Thank you, text not being optimized seems like a big oversight. 

[walt.farrell]

The PSD format is proprietary and not completely documented. Serif have chosen not to try to reverse-engineer all the undocumented aspects of text, which means they cannot save it in text format.

[Ldina]

Export to PSD if you want a PSD file. As Walt mentions, PSD is a proprietary Adobe file format. Some PSD features may not be supported by Affinity, just as Photoshop cannot save to AfPhoto file format and retain all Affinity features. So, saving or exporting to PSD may not always preserve all features perfectly. Only standard file formats (TIFF, PNG, JPG, etc), which are documented and cross platform are fully supported by by most applications. 

[LeoPold]

I am also in a PSD pipeline with a lot of other artists, working remotely, internationally in feature films.
So keeping PSD throughout the process is a vital compatibility and efficiency issue and 
After all, Adobe was one of the first to market, so it is reasonable PSD files are so common across production.
Is there anpther universal file format that retains more data and layers and is 8, 16 and 32 bit?

Open EXR with layers perhaps? 

[fde101]

Each major program in this category has its own unique feature set and its own unique requirements for its native file format.

There are no "universal" formats for retaining that data as it the programs are inherently incompatible with each other when it comes to working data.

PSD is a proprietary format specific to Photoshop and is not a "universal" format, but there is limited support for a subset of it allowing import/export by other software, with limitations as previously mentioned.

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, LeoPold said:

So keeping PSD throughout the process is a vital compatibility and efficiency issue and 

I'm afraid that your best approach is to use the Adobe suite, as your collaborators are probably doing. That is the best way to guarantee compatibility.

[LeoPold]

Thanks Walt. Yeah obviosuly. 

No. Not an option.
I am not hearing options here.
Please reread my original question.
We are looking for a production solution across the whole team as people are in clip studio, procreate, affinity etc.
We want this production to empower and enable the crew to use what they want,
not lock them in an eco system like a subscript ai rip-off like Adobe.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, LeoPold said:

We are looking for a production solution across the whole team as people are in clip studio, procreate, affinity etc.

There is no cross-application solution, as there is no universal format that all those applications understand and support fully which does everything.

[LeoPold]

Sorry Walt, I'm not buying it.
Testing EXR and PSD as we speak.
I just wanted to see if people in this forum
had any suggestions.

Blender PSD? Check
Affinity PSD? Check (no text, no big deal for this BG team´)
Clip studio PSD? Check?
Krita PSD? Check
Resolve PSD? Check

Layers intact? Check
Color spaces intact? Check?
Display P3 intact? Check
8 bit intact? Check?

Brush sharing for the BG team. No.
 

[Ldina]

@LeoPold what Walt said is correct. PSD supports ALL Photoshop features, and afphoto format supports ALL affinity features. They are designed for that purpose.

That said, you can successfully export to PSD from Affinity and open in PS as long as you use ONLY standard features supported by PSD file format. Some things are done differently, so some seemingly ‘routine’ operations may not always transport as expected. You’ve said rasterization of text is no big deal, so that’s a plus. You’ll have to do some testing to see which Affinity filters, adjustment layers and tools create problems for PSDs opened in PS, then avoid them.

i have almost no experience with EXR, so nothing to offer there.

[walt.farrell]

There are also some PSD functions such as Mesh Warp that aren't supported by Affinity. 

The risk is in what you'll find randomly that doesn't work, as your team does things.

[PaoloT]

5 hours ago, LeoPold said:

not lock them in an eco system like a subscript ai rip-off like Adobe.

If you don't want to be locked into the Adobe ecosystem, it makes little sense to use an Adobe native file format.

Use a universal, open, documented format, like TIFF, and be reasonably sure it will translate among different programs.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, PaoloT said:

Use a universal, open, documented format, like TIFF, and be reasonably sure it will translate among different programs.

But note that the TIFF container format may be well documented, but the contents of anything except the raster image it may contain are not.

Thus, Photoshop can save a TIFF with basically a PSD file inside it (in addition to a raster image), and Affinity can save a TIFF with an Affinity file inside it (in addition to the raster image). But that does not mean that other programs will be able to interpret that extra data, which may be proprietary and partly or wholly undocumented.

[Old Bruce]

@LeoPold,

i would suggest talking to your collaborators and decide amongst yourselves what to use/purchase as you and yours will be working together. I could suggest that you all purchase the Affinity Suite and work that way but there are perhaps some people who have older machines which cannot run the Affinity applications, and I do know that the cost is not insignificant for some people (even considering the current 50% sale price). Only you and yours can tell for sure what will work for you.

[Frozen Death Knight]

14 hours ago, LeoPold said:

Thanks Walt. Yeah obviosuly. 

No. Not an option.
I am not hearing options here.
Please reread my original question.
We are looking for a production solution across the whole team as people are in clip studio, procreate, affinity etc.
We want this production to empower and enable the crew to use what they want,
not lock them in an eco system like a subscript ai rip-off like Adobe.

The solution is to have a standard and stick to it if it is that important. If everything needs to be PSD at all times then it means you have to use Photoshop, since Adobe are the ones responsible for the file format and own it. The competition only support PSD because they have to. If only the final product needs to be PSD then any software that supports PSD works. Only Photopea does what you want and I very much doubt your team would be fine using that over anything else.

Expecting another program like Affinity to build its foundations on something it has zero control over is never going to happen. PSD is Adobe, so if you truly want to cut all ties with Adobe you must abandon PSD and build your work on some other open source standard with equivalent features as PSD (which does not exist) or embrace another ecosystem like Affinity.

You could also try making your own file format and make that the industry standard. Way harder to do, but hey, anything's possible if you are stubborn enough.

[PaulEC]

21 hours ago, LeoPold said:

I am not hearing options here.

The answer is simple, there is no file format that will enable complete compatibility, with all features working correctly, across Adobe and Affinity. You will either have to compromise on which features are important to you, or you will all need to use the same software.

[myclay]

16 hours ago, PaoloT said:

Use a universal, open, documented format, like TIFF, and be reasonably sure it will translate among different programs.

This one for example;

https://www.openraster.org/

https://docs.krita.org/en/general_concepts/file_formats/file_ora.html

Quote

*.ora, or the Open Raster format, is an interchange format.
It was designed to replace *.psd as an interchange format, as the latter isn’t meant for that.

 

[PaulEC]

1 hour ago, myclay said:

This one for example;

https://www.openraster.org/

https://docs.krita.org/en/general_concepts/file_formats/file_ora.html

 

I'm not sure how this helps as, AFAIK, neither Affinity nor Adobe supports this file type!

[walt.farrell]

54 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

I'm not sure how this helps as, AFAIK, neither Affinity nor Adobe supports this file type!

And that file type doesn't seem to support adjustment layers or vector layers yet.

[myclay]

2 hours ago, PaulEC said:

neither Affinity nor Adobe supports this file type!

indeed, the only advantage that fileformat has is;
it is an open and documented format.
Once scripting in Affinity Photo is available, an add-on could maybe be written for it.

 

[PaoloT]

2 hours ago, myclay said:

It is an open and documented format.

By comparison, TIFF is open and documented, and supported by all the graphic programs around.

Paolo

 

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

By comparison, TIFF is open and documented, and supported by all the graphic programs around.

Again, though, it's only open and documented for unlayered raster images. Not for anything complex.

 

[prophet]

On 8/10/2024 at 7:47 AM, walt.farrell said:

that file type doesn't seem to support … vector layers yet.

"OpenRaster is an intentionally simple file format, similar to the Open Document file format: a zip file with an xml document describing the layer structure and a png image for each raster layer or an svg image for each vector layer."

The .ora file format looks interesting. Would love to cure the industry of the assumption that .psd is a "universal" format.

Or .ai for that matter. My favorite thing to do when conversing with some middle-man lackey who insists my flattened/outlined vector PDF is not ok since the production team requires an AI file…"just change the suffix from .pdf to .ai and see if that works for you."