Why the PSD files are so heavy?

[Alex782012]

Hello, I have a question regarding the Photoshop files that the design department sends to me. They reuse the same PSD over and over again, changing only the design. These PSDs are too heavy and too slow for the layers inside.

I have tried to merge all the layers and the PSD it´s still very heavy and slow. We are talking about a weight of 400MB with the layered psd that drops to 150MB with layers merged.  However, if I copy that new layer with the the merged image into a new psd document and save it, the weight drops drastically and it goes faster! (about 2MB) That makes me think that there is some kind of cache or data inside the PSD file that is always saved. How would I know what makes the PSD file not lose weight when I merge all the layers so that I don't have to go through the process of joining and copying the image to another PSD?

Thank you very much!

[Sameer K]

This is a great question & I'll clarify this for you.

PSD files in Photoshop are an 'in-process' state of your documents. PSD is a layered document containing all the elements in your file. Visible components on the canvas & beyond the canvas as well. When you're moving the merged/flattened layer to a new document, you're sacrificing the recovery options of the original PSD document.

For reviewing & sharing PSD try this: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/share-for-feedback.html

Learn what happens when you're merging/flattening layers in Photoshop. Check this: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/layers.html

Here is a short overview of what PSDs are: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/raster/psd-file.html

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!
Sameer K

[Alex782012]

Thank you for your response Sameer K

But what I want to know is if there is any option to reduce the original PSD file size like if a merge all layers in the original PSD and copy/paste it in a new psd. Because in the first case, only merging layers, the PSD size is about 130MB and doing the copy/paste ofthe layer merged in a new PSD is about 2MB, and the two PSDs are the same:

What is causing this 128MB weight difference and how can i remove it from the original PSD?

[TheDigitalDog]

Merging layers, smaller (on disk) documents. If the original is 16-bit but you have been copying and pasting into an 8-bit per color new doc, half the size. 

No need to do anything else but Merge (maybe reduce bit depth) and Save As... so the original with layers remain intact for (future?) editing. 

Maybe consider TIFF with compression (smaller documents, slower to open and save). In fact, there isn't anything PSD brings to the party unless you're an InDesign Power user. Anything you can do with a PSD in Photoshop is supported by TIFF:

http://digitaldog.net/files/TIFFvsPSD.pdf

[Stephen Marsh]

Reuse of templates is a clue... Go to File > File Info and then the Raw Data tab.

Is there a single line message that there is too much metadata to display? 

Or do you see the standard XMP metadata entries?

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/06/metadata-bloat-photoshopdocumentancestors.html

[Alex782012]

When I open the File Info all the fields are empty. I know, the reuse of the PSD file is the clue. But what?

My main problem is that when receiving these large files, photoshop takes a long time to perform any action, copy and paste a part of the design to export it as png, jpg or whatever, show or hide layers. In short, everything I need to do my job. That's why I wanted to know if when the same psd is reused over and over again, some information is stored somewhere that increases the size of the file. They are not going to stop reusing the PSD because no matter how much we tell the design department not to do it, it is more comfortable for them and they always do it.

[Stephen Marsh]

@Alex782012 – I asked for the Raw Data tab, not the other tabs such as Basic. Illustrated below:

Excess photoshop:DocumentAncestors metadata can add up, however, this may be only part of the answer even if it is present.

Is the file using smart objects? Are large files scaled down in size? Do the smart objects also contain excess metadata?

Are there layers that extend past the canvas adding to the file size.

There are many reasons why files can be larger than expected.