A way to convert PSD format to something Gimp can read

Question

I have a bunch of PSD files (and more to come) and I want to get them into a format I can work with.

I have had (some) success reading PSDs with Gimp before but these files won't read properly.

Is there a way to convert PSDs to XCF?

I have tried IrfanView which displays the PSDs alright but no conversion to Gimp's XCF.

I read a (accepted) post on Yahoo Answers that says PNGs can support layers. Is this true? If so, how can I do this?

Solution

PNG is a bad choice as it won't support much of the PSD features... XCF is also a bad idea since even the GIMP developers don't recommend it since it is built around the internal data structures of GIMP (which can and do change from version to version).

Lots of features (but by far NOT ALL) of PSD can be converted to TIFF which for example supports layers and some other things.

But to do such a conversion properly you will need Photoshop... it can work with and handle and save layered TIFFs without any problem... PSD has "evolved" from version to verion and has become rather complicated - it can even contain vector data etc.

For a Photoshop tutorial see http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshop/gettingstarted/index.html

Comments

[Matthew]

So PhotoShop can export to layered TIFF? I'm not super familiar working with it. FYI for anyone interested, IrfanView will not preserve layers saving PSD as TIFF.

[Yahia]

@Matt Photoshop can work and save layered TIFFs without any problem... for PSD saving there is even a "compatibility mode" when saving (although some newer PSD features witll get "kicked").

[MoralCode]

do you have a source for since even the GIMP developers don't recommend it since it is built around the internal data structures of GIMP?