Very large PSB files

[DavidMac]

I am deeply impressed by Affinity so far but have bumped up against, for me, a severe limitation.

 

I work on very large complex high resolution images - for example currently an image 9300 x 9300 pixels @ 300DPI with many hundreds of layers. Files this size get saved in PSB format - in this case 2.5GB. For working my file is broken down into about fifty smart objects which makes it much more RAM efficient. I then work by expanding just the objects I want to work on.

 

Affinity cannot load PSB and a file this size cannot save as PSD. 

 

I would love to work with this app but I feel it may be a couple of years down the road before it has the rather unusual and demanding capabilities I am looking for.

 

So ............

 

Are their any plans to enable importing PSB's to Affinity? 

 

If so will it be able to handle files of this size and complexity on a suitably equipped machine?

 

Either way congratulations on a great job so far!

 

David Mac

 

Mac Pro 2 x 2,8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 28GB RAM, SSD virtual mem/swap drive, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2048 MB graphics.

[evtonic3]

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/6883-affinity-is-not-adobe/?p=29590

[DavidMac]

Well ... Yes. Point taken. I fully appreciate that Affinity is quite different and rightly so. It must be very tiresome to have people wanting things the way they are in Adobe, but I think you may have somewhat misinterpreted my question.

 

I really am not asking if I can do things in Affinity the way I do in PS or looking for a PS like clone. I am simply asking if I will ever be able to migrate PSB's to Affinity and whether Affinity will be able to handle files of the sort of size mentioned. Like it or not I am a migrant from Adobe and as such I think it is reasonable to ask if my large files will be able to migrate with me ....... which the link given does not answer. 

 

Let me phrase the question another way without potentially irritating reference to Adobe: Is their a file or image size limit in Affinity? Both on disk or while working?

 

I really do want to know please. 

[Ben]

PSD import is constantly being improved.  In theory it should already import the PSB version. We may have just overlooked adding the file extension to our recognised list.

 

Size wise, Affinity has no hard limits.

 

As for smart object support - there is no date for us doing this.  We'l have to look carefully into how best to support this.

[DavidMac]

Thanks. Didn't work last time I tried importing .psb but that was a couple of versions ago. I will check again. The important answer is that there are no limits (beyond machine capacity obviously) in Affinity.

 

If push comes to shove, I can break down my extra large images into groups and export each one to a psd and then load them one by one into a single Affinity image and then re-save as an Affinity file.

 

Whether there is any call for smart objects will depend on how well Affinity manages the big files. I managed without smart objects before they came along by grouping parts of my images and exporting the group to a file to save it and then flattening it in the image to recover memory. It's clumsy but it works .... kind of roll your own smart object. ;)

 

Thanks for the helpful reply. Very encouraging.

[DavidMac]

OK. Just checked. Psb's cannot at present be opened. They are greyed in the "Open" dialogue. Tried changing the extension to psd and get a message that the file cannot be parsed. The same applies if I try to "Place" a psb (or drag it) into an already open document.

 

As you say, maybe it's just a case of adding psb to the recognised extensions so it is not greyed out in the "Open" dialogue.

 

Seems I will need to use my workaround for now.

 

Oh ......... and thanks for the y Axis vector scope. I've been longing for that for years!! We use them constantly in movie grading and colour correction. Really useful.