Background vs. regular layers

[robertm70931868]

When I open an image into Photoshop from Camera Raw, it always opens as a background layer. I therefore have to convert every image I open into a regular layer, as I have no use for background layers. Is there a way to make opening images as a regular layer the default behavior so I don't have to constantly do this conversion? I see a way to do it when creating new files, but can find no way to do it when opening images from Camera Raw. I'm using Photoshop 21.2.7.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

One option is to open as a smart object from ACR (prefs/workflow or open menu button/object), otherwise, this can be automated using a default script from Adobe via the Script Events Manager:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2021/10/photoshop-script-events-manager.html

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/background-layer-to-file-name-script/...

[robertm70931868]

I don't use smart objects, so whatever I'd have to do to change them to regular layers would be as much trouble as just converting the background layer. I tried the "open as layer" script but unfortunately it does not work when opening files from ACR, so I guess I'll just have to convert my background layers one by one. Thanks for the suggestions, though!

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Don't give up yet! :]

I'll look into this a bit deeper...

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

The following two scripts work fine for me from a raw camera file with the open event for a single or multiple images:

// (c) Copyright 2008.  Adobe Systems, Incorporated.  All rights reserved.

/*
@@@BUILDINFO@@@ OpenAsLayer.jsx 1.0.0.0
*/

var begDesc = "$$$/JavaScripts/OpenAsLayer/Description=Assign this to the open document event. This will promote a document with only a background layer to a layer with the document name." // endDesc


// on localized builds we pull the $$$/Strings from a .dat file, see documentation for more details
$.localize = true;

if ( app.documents.length > 0 ) {
	var doc = activeDocument;
	if ( doc.layers.length == 1 && doc.activeLayer.isBackgroundLayer ) {
		doc.activeLayer.isBackgroundLayer = false;
		doc.activeLayer.name = doc.name;
	}
}

// (c) Copyright 2008.  Adobe Systems, Incorporated.  All rights reserved.

/*
@@@BUILDINFO@@@ OpenAsLayer.jsx 1.1.0.0
*/

var begDesc = "$$$/JavaScripts/OpenAsLayer/Description=Assign this to the open document event. This will promote a document with only a background layer to a layer with the document name." // endDesc


// on localized builds we pull the $$$/Strings from a .dat file, see documentation for more details
$.localize = true;

var stripExtension = true;

if ( app.documents.length > 0 ) {
	var doc = activeDocument;
	if ( doc.layers.length == 1 && doc.activeLayer.isBackgroundLayer ) {
		doc.activeLayer.isBackgroundLayer = false;
		var docNameNoExtension = doc.name;
		if (stripExtension) {
			var extensionIndex = docNameNoExtension.lastIndexOf (".");
			if (extensionIndex != -1) {
				docNameNoExtension = docNameNoExtension.substr(0, extensionIndex);
			}
		}
		doc.activeLayer.name = docNameNoExtension;
	}
}