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P: Support Common Image Formats (EPS, GIF, PDF, BMP etc.)

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
January 19, 2012
275 replies
9772 views

Feature request: Please add Lightroom support for common Adobe publishing and Web image formats, such as EPS, AI, PDF, GIF, and PNG.

Many of us use Lightroom to manage client images in NEF, JPG, PSD and other formats. But the clients' associated images, which are used on their Websites and in their logos and publications, are invisible to Lightroom. If Adobe Bridge can display these other image formats, why can't Lightroom?

Even if Lightroom did not provide direct editing support for these other image formats, it would still be extremely useful if Lightroom could catalog and display them.

It would also elevate Lightroom from being "just" a photo editor into the realm of being a true Digital Asset Manager (DAM). Now that Lightroom includes basic video support - isn't it time to support all the common image formats that our other CS applications use?

Please vote for, as well as reply to, this request if you would also like to see Lightroom support these additional common image formats...

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john beardsworth

Community Expert

Sure, it's just a 35kb bit of code in some other program.... As I explained before, the key problem is the lack of a composite image, and somehow you are going to have to reliably reconstruct pixel-based files that could be complex and large. You'd probably need Photoshop to do the heavy lifting, and handle funnies like third party Photoshop plugins on smart objects (sure those plugins are still installed?) and all the other variations that would need to be coded and tested (image mode conversion comes to mind). Even if the bloat is small in kb, the cost is high.

And why? All because the user deliberately chose the option that warned them of the bad consequences of their choice? And to placate the same users who even now, when they could immediately solve the problem they caused themselves, are still too lazy to run an action/droplet?

T

Thany2

Known Participant

Lightroom installed is 1GB in size. Unless you have some hard evidence that proves me wrong, I don't believe adding a full PSD renderer will make it much bigger.

Better yet, Lightroom can also "just" use the PSD renderer that's already in Photoshop, if installed. Could/should be a shared component.

john beardsworth

Community Expert

Thanks, but I referred to your post, not you, as ignorant.

K

Kim Letkeman

Participating Frequently

Consider sticking to features and facts as ad hominem road leads to the dark side ...

john beardsworth

Community Expert

I'll gladly restore it as it was a perfect riposte to the inanity of your post.

K

Kim Letkeman

Participating Frequently

Well, that was at least slightly more polite than the retort that you deleted. The fact is that Lightroom does not need to offer *editing* of all files. It merely needs to recognize them and allow them to be cataloged so that tags etc can be brought to bear. It really is a simple matter.

john beardsworth

Community Expert

Oh well, the PSD plugin for paint.net is 31.7Kb in a zip file. So must be a guide as to what Lightroom would need. Hm.

Sadly, I doubt Adobe will remove the restrictions and allow photographers to choose which types of files they want to manage in Lightroom. Displaying OS-level thumbnails would be a big step forward, but going beyond that for incompatible PSDs makes little sense since users can already solve the problem they have caused themselves.

K

Kim Letkeman

Participating Frequently

Well, the PSD plugin for paint.net is 31.7Kb in a zip file. That seems like a tolerable amount of bloat, no? But of course it does down convert many of the advanced color spaces etc to its own simpler view, much as Lightroom would. It also does not handle the sub-rectangle aspects of layers, but Lightroom already understands such things. So I find it hard to believe that we would add more than a few hundred Kb of compiled code to the application for this feature. But all the other formats under discussion are also important, so let's not get completely distracted by the compatibility issue. In the end, Lightroom is a useful catalog for any files we encounter or it is not.

john beardsworth

Community Expert

Do you not understand that saving the non-maximised PSD principally means the omission of a composite image, which Lightroom would have to rebuild? PSD files can be highly complex, with multiple pixel layers and many other parameters which mean absolutely nothing to Lightroom. So, yes, bundling large amounts of Photoshop code into Lightroom does make bloat a pretty fair description.

john beardsworth

Community Expert

Too much ignorance invalidates the rant?

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