P: support for un-maximized PSDs

[Mike--Palmer]

I saw a post in 2009 about this, but nothing since. Lightroom NEEDS to support Unmaximized PSDs in some form or another. Right now they are invisible to Lightroom!

A multilayered photo file can be 200MB Un-Maximized, yet it's only 89 MB Maximized.

I'd even settle for saving a small composite image in the PSD that Lightroom can use.

As the guy said in 2009 - It's PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM, how can Lightroom completely ignore files native to Photoshop?

[Tom Hogarty]

Mike, others, thanks for your persistence on the topic. I'll give you some background on why this functionality isn't currently on our Lightroom roadmap. At the end of the day, product development comes down to a series of prioritization decisions. While a reasonable feature request, this is one that's never made the prioritization cut. One of the initial concerns was that the code required to interpret proprietary, layered PSD files would more than double the size of the Lightroom application. That's an incredible burden to place on all customers for something requested by a fraction. The team also believes strongly in supporting standards such as XMP, DNG and TIFF. Supporting a proprietary, layered PSD file is not a path the team would prioritize above other efforts. Also keep in mind the testing efforts required every time we update the Lightroom application. (8 releases per year) Validating proprietary PSD support could be disproportionately expensive relative to the amount of value we're providing with the feature.

While none of this background decreases the validity of your request, hopefully it gives you an idea of why the functionality has yet to make it into Lightroom.

Regards,
Tom Hogarty
Adobe Systems

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm totally willing to give this idea up if they make a true Dual screen usage a prioity, and the godz willing to allow the Dev modules to be from the apps interface so we can arrange them the way each person wants to work(I understand it is setup to have a default workflow for default users).

Another wish for maybe version 7 or 8 is to have the Bridge browser integrate with the Library mode but be a seperate application. The Library app would be a hybrid catalog and broswer. Other formats that LR doesn't support would be dimmed out(perhaps have a right click for external app to launch it), But at least you would see all files without hindering the catalog. This would be a mature app. It is still in the infancy stage and that is the direction it would need to go for true saturation and growth.

Tom, Thank you for letting the reality of the situation be a bit more clear.

[Lumigraphics]

Lightroom Classic will throw an error if you try to import PSD files which were saved without a flattened layer (Maximize Compatibility unchecked.) Besides being a poor design decision (can't even read Adobe's own native file format), the program offers no help beyond giving a list of unsupported files. Fixing the problem is left to the user.

Why not, if Photoshop is present on the system, have a preference to convert unsupported files in the background? Lightroom would send the list to Photoshop, Photoshop would open the files and save them with Maximize Compatibility, and Lightroom could then import them.

This seems like a fairly easy idea to implement.

[Lumigraphics]

So don't support layered files. Upon import, send the list of unsupported files to Photoshop and have Photoshop open and resave them (assuming Photoshop is installed.) See my feature idea below.

[Thany2]

This is not a very good workaround. A better workaround would be to actively "use" the Photoshop engine to display the natively-unsupported items. Much like one can embed a spreadsheet in a text document, using the spreadsheet program engine to display its part.

Photoshop has that engine ready to go. Why not use it if it's there.

[Thany2]

See my comment below. You shouldn't need to bloat your storage with extra layers that describe what's already there, essentially.

[Lumigraphics]

I'd rather not rely on Photoshop being present. At least show an unrendered placeholder that can be opened and resaved as needed. Current implementation is worthless for those of us with thousands of legacy files.

[Thany2]

Lightroom might as well *include* Photoshop's engine for rendering those files. Adobe has the source code. They could just include it as a file filter, not unlike a file filter that handles PNG or TIFF or whatever.

[john beardsworth]

Including the Photoshop engine in LR is simply not going to happen. Reading PSDs saved without compatibility is a different task from reading PNG, TIF and PSDs with compatibility maximised because they contain a preview which LR can extract.

If you want these files in LR, you're going to need to process them with an action/droplet/script that resaves them in compatible format. For new files, change your Photoshop settings to maximise compatibility, or use TIF.

[Lumigraphics]

Once again, that's zero help for someone with a lot of legacy files. Plus they could STILL add support for a simple placeholder.

[john beardsworth]

Actually, it's  very practical help rather than wasting energy on something Adobe are clearly not going to do. If you want those files in LR, it's in your power to do so.

I happen to agree with placeholders so people can catalogue any type of file they choose, but that's a different issue.