13/3/2011

Tip #13: Photoshop Files

This tip is to help you understand a certain file type that is associated with Adobe Photoshop, and it’s a great one at that!

Thanks to Adam for suggesting this tip .

The file type is called ‘PSD’ and I believe it means ‘Photoshop Standard Document’.

 

So what is a .PSD used for?

Short answer: Photoshop

Basically think of them as ‘save points’ for images you have edited/editing, The good thing about them is if you are working on an image for quiet some time and you’d like to save everything you’ve done to the image and come back to it another time and carry on where you left off.

 

Example:

 

Here’s an image I’m editing in Photoshop

If you see the to the right I have all my different ‘Layers’ I’ve edited along the way

Now if I were to save the file as a .JPG or any other format, I would’nt be able to open the file again and edit the layers again as it will flatten the image to one layer.

This is where the PSD file type helps, As saving it as a PSD will enable you to load the image back up and carry on/make tweaks to any layers you have made, so you can pick back up from exactly where you left before saving it.

To save your image as a .PSD you simply go to File>Save As and select the .PSD option, it may already have this selected for you.

 

Thats all for now, Hope this makes sense! Happy editing!

Thanks

Dan.