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visualworks
visualworks
Participating Frequently
February 3, 2026
In Development

Native support for multi-layer EXR (OpenEXR) files

  • February 3, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 131 views

Photoshop currently lacks the ability to natively open multi-layer EXR files, typically only loading the combined "RGBA" layer and an Alpha channel.

While Windows users have access to third-party plugins like Exr-IO, macOS users have no viable equivalent. Currently, my workflow requires me to open renders in Affinity Photo just to export them as PSDs for Photoshop.

This constant switching is a massive productivity drain. While I prefer Photoshop’s toolset, Affinity’s native handling of multi-channel EXRs makes a strong case for moving my entire pipeline there.

Request: Please implement native, multi-channel OpenEXR support that preserves layer names upon import.

      2 replies

      Sameer K
      Community Manager
      Sameer KCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      February 5, 2026
      Open for Voting→In Development
      C
      Adobe Employee
      cody_cuellar
      Adobe Employee
      February 3, 2026

      Please download the latest Beta of Photoshop from Creative Cloud, and open your EXRs. The beta has full multichannel OpenEXR support and should retain layer order and names, and gives you the option of how to treat incoming alpha channels as transparency or user mask! These features will eventually be coming to release, but they are very new and in Beta at the moment.

        visualworks
        visualworksAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        February 4, 2026

        Thanks! That is fantastic news! I have tried it, and it works, but it is still not production ready. For now it seems multi-channel EXR import is not fully integrated with OpenColorIO workflow. However seeing the great progress you’ve made in last Photoshop versions with OpenColorIO I can only hope for the best!

        C
        Adobe Employee
        cody_cuellar
        Adobe Employee
        February 4, 2026

        There were some recent additions this month to retain more Photoshop metadata in the OpenEXR format. It should work just fine with OCIO as well, as we’ve been working directly with studios to address issues with it for production - but if you have anything further we’re missing or isn’t working as expected, please share with us! The more feedback we get from the public, the faster we can move it into production builds.

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