Open PSD File

Free Software to Open PSD

GIMP

GIMP is an open-source and free raster editing software which is capable of opening PSD files. PSD files support in GIMP has certain limitations. Below is a list of PSD features which are not fully supported:

• LAB, CMYK, Bitmap and Duotone image modes are not supported
• Missing support for layer clones
• No support for vector layers
• No support for fill layers, layers effects and adjustment layers
• Editing of text layers is not supported
• Layer compositions support is missing
• Blending modes not perfectly matched between Adobe Photoshop and GIMP
• Blending options support is limited in GIMP
• Undo history is missing when importing PSD files in GIMP

PSB files are not supported by GIMP.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is a software developed by Rick Brewster. It is available as a free download from https://www.getpaint.net/. It is also available as a paid download from Microsoft Store with the only difference in features of paid version is support of the automatic update. Paint.NET is written on C# and is only available for Windows operating system.

Paint.NET can open PSD files using PSD plug-in written by Frank Blumenberg and is currently supported by Tao Yue.

Since certain Adobe Photoshop features do not exists in Paint.NET they will be missing during PSD file import to Paint.NET. Opening PSD in Paint.NET will preserve image visual fidelity and it will still be possible to work on an image after the import process. Below is a list of PSD features which may not be available after import:

• Colorspaces other than RGB are not supported
• Raster layer masks are not supported and will be merged into alpha layer during import
• Only 8-bits per channel are supported by Paint.NET. 16-bits and 32-bits per channel images will still be loaded but color range will be limited by 8 bits
• Text layers will only load as raster layers and will not be editable
• Color profiles support is not available in Paint.NET and colors may look different if color profiles were used in PSD
• Vector features like vector masks are not supported by Paint.NET due to it being only raster image editor
• Layer effects are not supported

For more details about Paint.NET and Adobe Photoshop PSD compatibility please visit Paint.NET PSD plugin page.