psdplugin Wiki Rss Feed

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:40:17 GMT

This is a filetype plugin for Paint.NET that enables both loading and saving of Photoshop .PSD files. It was originally written by Frank Blumenberg in 2006, and has been maintained by Tao Yue since 2010.

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

If you find the plugin useful and would like to contribute monetarily towards further development, donations are accepted via PayPal:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

Thanks for your help!

How to install the plugin

Close Paint.NET.
Unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.
Restart Paint.NET, which will automatically detect the PSD filetype plugin.

Features

The plugin can load and save the following features of Photoshop .PSD files with no loss of fidelity:

RGB images
Color depth of 8 bits per channel
Raster images with no use of vector features
Layers, using the common blend modes
(Optional) RLE compression

In this way, you can use the plugin to exchange work between Paint.NET and other programs. This is especially important since Paint.NET preserves layers only for the default .PDN format — other file formats are flattened on save. The .PSD file format thus offers the best way to preserve layers when editing an image in multiple graphics programs.

The Photoshop .PSD file format is a de facto standard in the graphics industry. In addition to the Adobe Creative Suite, many non-Adobe programs can also read the PSD format: Autodesk Sketchbook, 3ds Max, The GIMP, Microsoft Expression Design, etc.

However, Paint.NET is ultimately a much less complex application than Photoshop. There will be features that do not translate over. If your file looks different in Paint.NET than it does in Photoshop, please see:

Compatibility with Photoshop

What if my .PSD file doesn’t load properly?

If you still have problems or questions, please feel free to:

Contact me via email
Post in the PSD filetype plugin thread on the official Paint.NET forums
File a bug in the Issue Tracker on Codeplex

Links may be found at the top of this page. In all cases, please attach the .PSD file so that I can further investigate the problem.

User feedback is directly responsible for most of the improvements made to the PSD filetype plugin. There have been over 200,000 downloads of the plugin since it moved to Codeplex. Thus, even a small bugfix could potentially help out a lot of other people. So please, don’t hesitate to write in!

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:45:23 GMT

Compatibility with Photoshop

Many people use the plugin to open .PSD files that they did not initially create. Ultimately, Paint.NET is a much simpler program than Adobe Photoshop, so there will be some features that do not translate.

Limitations

In many cases, we can preserve the visual fidelity of a file when loading it in, even though it uses features that do not exist in Paint.NET.

Other colorspaces can be loaded in, but are converted to RGB:
- Bitmap
- Grayscale
- Duotone (color information discarded, treated as grayscale)
- Indexed color
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Lab
Raster layer masks are merged into the alpha channel on load, and are not preserved separately.
Higher color depths can be loaded, but Paint.NET can only represent 8 bits per channel internally.
- For images with 16 bits per channel, the dynamic range remains the same, but the additional 8 bits of tonal resolution are lost.
- For images with 32 bits per channel (High Dynamic Range), the extended dynamic range is not preserved or tone-mapped. Instead, the colors are truncated to the visible range.
Text layers load in as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will no longer be editable.

Incompatibilities

Insufficient memory due to too many layers.

Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, graphic designers are in the habit of creating new layers to make adjustments to small portions of the image. It is not unusual to encounter several hundred layers on a fairly simple image.

However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the canvas. A Photoshop file with many layers may blow up by two orders of magnitude when loaded into Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- Note: Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the PSD Plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, a PSD file that is saved in Paint.NET will still be memory-efficient when loaded into Photoshop.
- The calculation for memory usage in Paint.NET is given at: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8606-out-of-memory-to-loadedit-an-image-read-this-first/
Color profile mismatches

Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not aware of color profiles. Thus, files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, may look dramatically different in Photoshop than in Paint.NET.
- Fewer problems tend to occur with RGB images, as the sRGB profile is fairly close to the way colors display on most uncalibrated monitors.
Vector masks and other non-raster features

Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Thus, all vector features are lost when loaded into Paint.NET. For example, the loss of vector layer masks may cause parts of the image to appear visible when they should instead be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.
Layer effects, such as shadow or background color, are lost.
Layer group visibility and blend modes are preserved. However, Paint.NET does not have hierarchical layers, so the sublayers are treated as individual layers. Depending on the blend modes used, the composite image may not look correct in Paint.NET.

Maximizing Compatibility

Paint.NET ships with layer support in only the native .PDN file format – other file formats will flatten the image. Thus, the Photoshop .PSD file format provides a convenient way to move your work between Paint.NET and other graphics applications. Photoshop files are widely used in the graphics community, and many non-Adobe applications also have the ability to read and write .PSD files.

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Paint.NET Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	Normal	norm
Additive	Linear Dodge (Add)	lddg
Color Burn	Color Burn	idiv
Color Dodge	Color Dodge	div
Darken	Darken	dark
Difference	Difference	diff
Lighten	Lighten	lite
Multiply	Multiply	mul
Overlay	Overlay	over
Screen	Screen	scrn

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Color	colr
Darker color	dkCl
Dissolve	diss
Divide	fdiv
Exclusion	smud
Hard light	hLit
Hard mix	hMix
Hue	hue
Lighter color	lgCl
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear light	lLit
Luminosity	lum
Pass through	pass
Pin light	pLit
Saturation	sat
Soft light	sLit
Subtract	fsub
Vivid light	vLit

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:37:43 GMT

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

If you find the plugin useful and would like to contribute monetarily towards further development, donations are accepted via PayPal:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

Thanks for your help!

How to install the plugin

Close Paint.NET, then unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Paint.NET will automatically detect the filetype plugin the next time it is run.

Features

The plugin can load and save the following features of Photoshop .PSD files with no loss of fidelity:

RGB images
Color depth of 8 bits per channel
Raster images with no use of vector features
Layers, using the common blend modes
(Optional) RLE compression

Compatibility with Photoshop

What if my .PSD file doesn’t load properly?

If you still have problems or questions, please feel free to:

Contact me via email
Post in the PSD filetype plugin thread on the official Paint.NET forums
File a bug in the Issue Tracker on Codeplex

Links may be found at the top of this page. In all cases, please attach the .PSD file so that I can further investigate the problem.

User feedback is directly responsible for most of the improvements made to the filetype plugin. There have been over 200,000 downloads of the plugin since it moved to Codeplex. Thus, even a small bugfix could potentially help out a lot of other people. So please, don’t hesitate to write in!

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:28:36 GMT

Compatibility with Photoshop

Limitations

In many cases, we can preserve the visual fidelity of a file when loading it in, even though it uses features that do not exist in Paint.NET.

Other colorspaces can be loaded in, but are converted to RGB:
- Bitmap
- Grayscale
- Duotone (color information discarded, treated as grayscale)
- Indexed color
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Lab
Raster layer masks are merged into the alpha channel on load, and are not preserved separately.
Higher color depths can be loaded, but Paint.NET can only represent 8 bits per channel internally.
- For images with 16 bits per channel, the dynamic range remains the same, but the additional 8 bits of tonal resolution are lost.
- For images with 32 bits per channel (High Dynamic Range), the extended dynamic range is not preserved or tone-mapped. Instead, the colors are truncated to the visible range.
Text layers load in as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will no longer be editable.

Incompatibilities

Insufficient memory due to too many layers.

Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, graphic designers are in the habit of creating new layers to make adjustments to small portions of the image. It is not unusual to encounter several hundred layers on a fairly simple image.

However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the canvas. A Photoshop file with many layers may blow up by two orders of magnitude when loaded into Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information:
  - Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the PSD Plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, a PSD file that is saved in Paint.NET will still be memory-efficient when loaded into Photoshop.
  - The calculation for memory usage in Paint.NET is given at: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8606-out-of-memory-to-loadedit-an-image-read-this-first/
Color profile mismatches

Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not aware of color profiles. Thus, files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, may look dramatically different in Photoshop than in Paint.NET.
- Fewer problems tend to occur with RGB images, as the sRGB profile is fairly close to the way colors display on most uncalibrated monitors.
Vector masks and other non-raster features

Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Thus, all vector features are lost when loaded into Paint.NET. For example, the loss of vector layer masks may cause parts of the image to "peek out" when they should instead be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Paint.NET Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	Normal	norm
Additive	Linear Dodge (Add)	lddg
Color Burn	Color Burn	idiv
Color Dodge	Color Dodge	div
Darken	Darken	dark
Difference	Difference	diff
Lighten	Lighten	lite
Multiply	Multiply	mul
Overlay	Overlay	over
Screen	Screen	scrn

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Color	colr
Darker color	dkCl
Dissolve	diss
Divide	fdiv
Exclusion	smud
Hard light	hLit
Hard mix	hMix
Hue	hue
Lighter color	lgCl
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear light	lLit
Luminosity	lum
Pass through	pass
Pin light	pLit
Saturation	sat
Soft light	sLit
Subtract	fsub
Vivid light	vLit

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:09:36 GMT

The .PSD file format reflects the features of Adobe Photoshop. Paint.NET is a much simpler program than Photoshop, so there will be areas where the features do not overlap. This may cause some issues when trying to load .PSD files created in Photoshop.

Common Issues

Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not aware of color profiles.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop than in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.
The Paint.NET PSD Plugin claims that there is not enough memory to load the file, but the PSD file is very small.
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, graphic designers often use layers to make tiny adjustments to a small portion of the image. It is not unusual to see over a hundred layers. But every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the canvas. A small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information:
  - Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the PSD Plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, a PSD file that is saved in Paint.NET will still be memory-efficient when loaded into Photoshop.
  - The calculation for memory usage in Paint.NET is given at: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8606-out-of-memory-to-loadedit-an-image-read-this-first/

Maximizing Compatibility

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Paint.NET Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	Normal	norm
Additive	Linear Dodge (Add)	lddg
Color Burn	Color Burn	idiv
Color Dodge	Color Dodge	div
Darken	Darken	dark
Difference	Difference	diff
Lighten	Lighten	lite
Multiply	Multiply	mul
Overlay	Overlay	over
Screen	Screen	scrn

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Color	colr
Darker color	dkCl
Dissolve	diss
Divide	fdiv
Exclusion	smud
Hard light	hLit
Hard mix	hMix
Hue	hue
Lighter color	lgCl
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear light	lLit
Luminosity	lum
Pass through	pass
Pin light	pLit
Saturation	sat
Soft light	sLit
Subtract	fsub
Vivid light	vLit

New Comment on "Compatibility with Photoshop"

CarlosRatoo — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:14:41 GMT

muito bom !

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:22:53 GMT

Common Issues

Memory exhaustion due to too many layers
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer, making it very efficient for graphic designers to use a layer for every small adjustment to a portion of the image. However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the image. Thus, a small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. This can easily cause Paint.NET to run out of memory.
- Symptoms: Paint.NET becomes nonresponsive, and hard disk starts thrashing.
- How to diagnose: Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Escape) and check how much memory Paint.NET is using.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information:
  - Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, it will still load efficiently back into Photoshop.
  - The calculation for memory usage in Paint.NET is given here: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8606-out-of-memory-to-loadedit-an-image-read-this-first/
Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not aware of color profiles.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop and in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

Paint.NET ships with layer support in only the native .PDN file format – other file formats will flatten the image. Thus, the Photoshop .PSD file format provides a convenient way of interchanging work between Paint.NET and other graphics applications. Photoshop files are widely used in the graphics community, and many non-Adobe applications also have the ability to read and write .PSD files.

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Paint.NET Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	Normal	norm
Additive	Linear Dodge (Add)	lddg
Color Burn	Color Burn	idiv
Color Dodge	Color Dodge	div
Darken	Darken	dark
Difference	Difference	diff
Lighten	Lighten	lite
Multiply	Multiply	mul
Overlay	Overlay	over
Screen	Screen	scrn

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Color	colr
Dissolve	diss
Exclusion	smud
Hard light	hLit
Hard mix	hMix
Hue	hue
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear light	lLit
Luminosity	lum
Pin light	pLit
Saturation	sat
Soft light	sLit
Vivid light	vLit

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

Speed

The parallelization is currently done at the granularity of layers or channels, using the Paint.NET thread pool. Once Paint.NET moves onto the .NET Framework 4.0, I plan to parallelize at a finer granularity using the Parallel Extensions for .NET.

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:56:55 GMT

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

If you find the plugin useful and would like to contribute monetarily towards further development, donations are accepted via PayPal:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

How to install the plugin

Close Paint.NET, then unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Paint.NET will automatically detect the filetype plugin the next time it is run.

Features

The plugin can load and save the following features of Photoshop .PSD files with no loss of fidelity:

RGB images
Color depth of 8 bits per channel
Raster images with no use of vector features
Layers, using the common blend modes
(Optional) RLE compression

In this way, you can use the plugin to exchange work between Paint.NET and other programs. This is especially important since Paint.NET preserves layers only for the default .PDN format – other file formats are flattened on save. The .PSD file format thus offers the best way to preserve layers when moving between different graphics programs.

The Photoshop .PSD file format is a de facto standard in the graphics industry. A number of programs can read and write .PSD files: not just the Adobe Creative Suite, but also many non-Adobe programs such as Autodesk Sketchbook, 3ds Max, The GIMP, and Microsoft Expression Design.

Limitations

Many people use the plugin to open .PSD files that they did not initially create. These files may use features that do not exist in Paint.NET, especially if they originate in Photoshop. The plugin will preserve visual fidelity when loading these files, but will not be able to preserve the file exactly as-is:

Other colorspaces can be loaded in, but are converted to RGB:
- Bitmap
- Grayscale
- Duotone (color information discarded, treated as grayscale)
- Indexed color
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Lab
Raster layer masks are merged into the alpha channel on load, and are not preserved separately.
Higher color depths can be loaded, but Paint.NET can only represent 8 bits per channel internally:
- 16 bits per channel. The additional tonal resolution is not preserved.
- 32 bits per channel (High Dynamic Range). The extended dynamic range is not preserved or tone-mapped; it is instead truncated to the visible range.
Text layers load in as raster images.

The following .PSD features cannot be loaded in:

Anything vector-related, including vector masks. This can cause hidden portions of the image to “peek out” from behind the mask.
Color profiles are ignored. Paint.NET is not a color-managed application.

For more details, please read: Compatibility with Photoshop

What if my .PSD file doesn’t load properly?

If you still have problems or questions, please feel free to:

Contact me via email
Post in the PSD filetype plugin thread on the official Paint.NET forums
File a bug in the Issue Tracker on Codeplex

Please attach the .PSD file so that I can further investigate the problem.

User feedback is directly responsible for most of the improvements made to the filetype plugin. There have been over a hundred thousand downloads of the plugin since it moved to Codeplex. Even a small bugfix could potentially help out a lot of other people. So please, don’t hesitate to write in!

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:49:18 GMT

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

Donations are accepted via PayPal, if you’d like to contribute monetarily towards the development of the plugin: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

How to install the plugin

Close Paint.NET, then unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Paint.NET will automatically detect the filetype plugin the next time it is run.

Features

Loading and Saving

Layers
RLE-compression
32 bit-RGBA colorspace

Load-only

Photoshop .PSD files with the following colorspaces are converted to RGBA on load:
- Bitmap
- Grayscale
- Duotone (color information discarded, treated as grayscale)
- Indexed
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Lab
Masks are applied to the layer on load. Vector masks are ignored.

What if my .PSD file doesn’t load properly?

Please first read: Compatibility with Photoshop

If you still have problems or questions, please feel free to:

Contact me via email
Post in the PSD filetype plugin thread on the official Paint.NET forums
File a bug in the Issue Tracker on Codeplex

Please attach the .PSD file so that I can further investigate the problem.

If you look at the release notes for each version of the plugin, you’ll see that user feedback is directly responsible for many of the improvements made to the filetype plugin. So please, keep those bug reports coming in! There have been a hundred thousand downloads of the plugin since it moved to Codeplex, so even a small bugfix could potentially help out a lot of people.

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:04:20 GMT

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

Donations are accepted via PayPal, if you’d like to contribute monetarily towards the development of the plugin: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

How to install the plugin

Close Paint.NET, then unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Paint.NET will automatically detect the filetype plugin the next time it is run.

Features

Loading and Saving

Layers
RLE-compression
32 bit-RGBA colorspace

Load-only

Photoshop .PSD files with the following colorspaces are converted to RGBA on load:
- Bitmap
- Grayscale
- Duotone (color information discarded, treated as grayscale)
- Indexed
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Lab
Masks are applied to the layer on load. Vector masks are ignored.

What if my .PSD file doesn’t load properly?

Please first read: Compatibility with Photoshop

If you still have problems or questions, please feel free to:

Contact me via email
Post in the PSD plugin thread on the official Paint.NET forums
File a bug in the Issue Tracker on Codeplex

If the problem occurs with a specific .PSD file, please attach the .PSD file so that I can investigate the problem.

Your bug reports are very helpful! If you look at the release notes for each version of the plugin, you’ll see that many changes come as a direct result of user feedback. In some cases, a user reported a small bug that turned out to affect many unexpected areas. So please, keep those bug reports coming in! There have been a hundred thousand downloads of the plugin since it moved to Codeplex, so even a small bugfix might potentially help a lot of people.

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:37:22 GMT

Common Issues

Memory exhaustion due to too many layers
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the image. Thus, a small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. Graphic designers often use lots of layers that each affect only a small portion of the image. This can easily cause Paint.NET to run out of memory.
- Symptoms: Paint.NET becomes nonresponsive, and hard disk starts thrashing.
- How to diagnose: Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Escape) and check how much memory Paint.NET is using.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information: Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, it will still load efficiently back into Photoshop.
Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop and in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

Paint.NET ships with only the native .PDN file format supporting layers – other file formats flatten the image. Thus, the Photoshop .PSD file format provides a convenient way of interchanging work between Paint.NET and other applications. Photoshop files are widely used in the graphics community, and many non-Adobe applications also have the ability to read and write .PSD files.

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Paint.NET Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	Normal	norm
Additive	Linear Dodge (Add)	lddg
Color Burn	Color Burn	idiv
Color Dodge	Color Dodge	div
Darken	Darken	dark
Difference	Difference	diff
Lighten	Lighten	lite
Multiply	Multiply	mul
Overlay	Overlay	over
Screen	Screen	scrn

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Color	colr
Dissolve	diss
Exclusion	smud
Hard light	hLit
Hard mix	hMix
Hue	hue
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear light	lLit
Luminosity	lum
Pin light	pLit
Saturation	sat
Soft light	sLit
Vivid light	vLit

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

Speed

The plugin is parallelized, so it will make use of a multi-core or multi-processor system to speed up the loading/saving of files. This is most useful if you have a large number of layers, or if you are loading non-RGB or RLE-compressed files. The parallelization is done at the granularity of layers or channels, using the Paint.NET thread pool. Once Paint.NET moves onto the .NET Framework 4.0, I plan to use the Parallel Extensions for .NET to parallelize at a finer granularity.

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:36:54 GMT

Common Issues

Memory exhaustion due to too many layers
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the image. Thus, a small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. Graphic designers often use lots of layers that each affect only a small portion of the image. This can easily cause Paint.NET to run out of memory.
- Symptoms: Paint.NET becomes nonresponsive, and hard disk starts thrashing.
- How to diagnose: Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Escape) and check how much memory Paint.NET is using.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information: Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, it will still load efficiently back into Photoshop.
Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop and in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Paint.NET Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	Normal	norm
Additive	Linear Dodge (Add)	lddg
Color Burn	Color Burn	idiv
Color Dodge	Color Dodge	div
Darken	Darken	dark
Difference	Difference	diff
Lighten	Lighten	lite
Multiply	Multiply	mul
Overlay	Overlay	over
Screen	Screen	scrn

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Color	colr
Dissolve	diss
Exclusion	smud
Hard light	hLit
Hard mix	hMix
Hue	hue
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear light	lLit
Luminosity	lum
Pin light	pLit
Saturation	sat
Soft light	sLit
Vivid light	vLit

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

Speed

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:39:45 GMT

Common Issues

Memory exhaustion due to too many layers
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the image. Thus, a small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. Graphic designers often use lots of layers that each affect only a small portion of the image. This can easily cause Paint.NET to run out of memory.
- Symptoms: Paint.NET becomes nonresponsive, and hard disk starts thrashing.
- How to diagnose: Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Escape) and check how much memory Paint.NET is using.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information: Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, it will still load efficiently back into Photoshop.
Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop and in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	norm
Multiply	mul
Color Burn	div
Color Dodge	idiv
Overlay	over
Difference	diff
Lighten	lite
Darken	dark
Screen	scrn

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Hue	hue
Saturation	sat
Color	colr
Luminosity	lum
Dissolve	diss
Hard light	hLit
Soft light	sLit
Exclusion	smud
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear dodge	lddg
Vivid light	vLit
Linear light	lLit
Pin light	pLit
Hard mix	hMix

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Additive
Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

Speed

The plugin is parallelized, so it will make use of a multi-core or multi-processor system to speed up the loading/saving of files. This is useful if you have a large number of layers, or if you are loading non-RGB or RLE-compressed files. The parallelization is done at the granularity of layers or channels, using the Paint.NET thread pool. Once Paint.NET moves onto the .NET Framework 4.0, I plan to improve the granularity of the parallelization using the Parallel Extensions for .NET, which provide a much simpler way to parallelize looping code.

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:26:28 GMT

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

Donations are accepted via PayPal, if you’d like to contribute monetarily towards the development of the plugin: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

How to install the plugin

Simply unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Features

Loading and Saving

Layers
RLE-compression
32 bit-RGBA colorspace

Load-only

Photoshop .PSD files with the following colorspaces are converted to RGBA on load:
- Bitmap
- Grayscale
- Duotone (color information discarded, treated as grayscale)
- Indexed
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Lab
Masks are applied to the layer on load. Vector masks are ignored.

What if my .PSD file doesn’t load properly?

Please first read: Compatibility with Photoshop

If you still have problems or questions, please feel free to:

Contact me via email
Post in the PSD plugin thread on the official Paint.NET forums
File a bug in the Issue Tracker on Codeplex

If the problem occurs with a specific .PSD file, please attach the .PSD file so that I can investigate the problem.

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:21:17 GMT

Common Issues

Memory exhaustion due to too many layers
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the image. Thus, a small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. Graphic designers often use lots of layers that each affect only a small portion of the image. This can easily cause Paint.NET to run out of memory.
- Symptoms: Paint.NET becomes nonresponsive, and hard disk starts thrashing.
- How to diagnose: Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Escape) and check how much memory Paint.NET is using.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information: Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, it will still load efficiently back into Photoshop.
Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop and in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

These

Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	norm
Multiply	mul
Color Burn	div
Color Dodge	idiv
Overlay	over
Difference	diff
Lighten	lite
Darken	dark
Screen	scrn

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Hue	hue
Saturation	sat
Color	colr
Luminosity	lum
Dissolve	diss
Hard light	hLit
Soft light	sLit
Exclusion	smud
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear dodge	lddg
Vivid light	vLit
Linear light	lLit
Pin light	pLit
Hard mix	hMix

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Additive
Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

Speed

Updated Wiki: Documentation

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:18:29 GMT

How to install the plugin

Simply unzip and copy PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

The next time you start Paint.NET, you will see a new option in the Open and Save dialog boxes: "Photoshop (*.psd)"

More Information

Compatibility with Photoshop

Updated Wiki: Compatibility with Photoshop

taoyue — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:15:31 GMT

Common Issues

Memory exhaustion due to too many layers
Photoshop stores only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. However, every layer in Paint.NET occupies the full dimensions of the image. Thus, a small Photoshop file with many layers will take up much more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. Graphic designers often use lots of layers that each affect only a small portion of the image. This can easily cause Paint.NET to run out of memory.
- Symptoms: Paint.NET becomes nonresponsive, and hard disk starts thrashing.
- How to diagnose: Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Escape) and check how much memory Paint.NET is using.
- Workaround: Reduce the number of layers in Photoshop by combining some layers.
- More information: Even though Paint.NET does not support partial layers, the plugin will still save only the non-empty rectangle from each layer. Thus, it will still load efficiently back into Photoshop.
Color profile mismatches
Photoshop is a color-managed application. However, Paint.NET is not.
- Symptoms: Files in non-RGB colorspaces, especially CMYK and Lab, look dramatically different in Photoshop and in Paint.NET.
- Workaround: Switch to RGB, and use the default sRGB profile in Photoshop.
Text layers, vector masks, other non-raster features
Although Photoshop started as a raster image editor, it has slowly been acquiring vector features over time. However, Paint.NET is a raster-only image editor.
- Text layers load into Paint.NET as raster images. The image will look correct, but the text will be non-editable.
- Vector masks are ignored, so parts of the image will appear visible that should be masked out.
- Workaround: Stick to the raster features in Photoshop.

Maximizing Compatibility

To maximize compatibility:

Tick the “Maximize Compatibility” checkbox when saving files in Photoshop.
Stick to the common layer blend modes, as listed in the section below. If you work with a program other than Photoshop, you may have to limit yourself further, as some of them implement fewer blend modes than Paint.NET does.
Use Photoshop as a raster image editor. Avoid the vector features.

Layer Blend Modes

The following blending modes are common to both Paint.NET and Photoshop:

These

Blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	norm
Multiply	mul
Color Burn	div
Color Dodge	idiv
Overlay	over
Difference	diff
Lighten	lite
Darken	dark
Screen	scrn

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are therefore loaded as normal layers:

Photoshop blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Hue	hue
Saturation	sat
Color	colr
Luminosity	lum
Dissolve	diss
Hard light	hLit
Soft light	sLit
Exclusion	smud
Linear burn	lbrn
Linear dodge	lddg
Vivid light	vLit
Linear light	lLit
Pin light	pLit
Hard mix	hMix

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the Photoshop file format specification, and are therefore saved as normal layers:

Additive
Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

Speed

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 22:44:10 GMT

This is a Paint.NET plugin for loading and saving Photoshop .PSD files. It was written by Frank Blumenberg in 2006, and has been maintained by Tao Yue since 2010.

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

If you'd like to contribute towards the development of the PSD plugin, donations are accepted via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FNX5QVJX43HC2

Installation

Simply unzip and move PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Discussion

We do not use the Discussion forum on Codeplex, since Paint.NET already has a forum where users gather for discussion. There is a thread for this PSD plugin on the official Paint.NET forums: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/18128-photoshop-psd-file-plugin-107-and-later/

To be notified of new releases, you may subscribe either to the discussion thread, or to the relevant RSS feeds on Codeplex.

Bug Reporting and Patches

Bug reports are welcomed. Interchanging PSD files reliably with Adobe Photoshop is the raison d'être of the plugin. Improving reliability is of much higher priority than features. Please submit bug reports through the Issue Tracker on Codeplex. If you are not an experienced tester/developer, please first read "How to Report Bugs Effectively," by Simon Tatham. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html

Patches and other contributions are also welcomed. I would prefer that you discuss the patch beforehand with me so that I know what's coming. I might also be able to offer advice on the best way to go about making the change with the least disruption to the codebase. Please click the "Contact" link on my Codeplex page: http://www.codeplex.com/site/users/view/taoyue

Features

Layers
Masks (loading only: merged into the layer)
RLE-compressed files
The following color modes can be loaded.
- 32 Bit-RGBA
- Gray scale
- Indexed
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Duotone (as gray scale)
- Lab
Only RGBA images are saved out, since Paint.NET uses RGBA internally.

Limitations

The filetype plugin does not include every feature in the PSD file format. Only those elements in PSD that have counterparts in Paint.NET are implemented. For example: Text layers, layer effects, and vector masks do not exist in Paint.NET. PSD files with these features may load using the plugin, but a number of elements will be missing.

In addition, PSD is a complex and poorly-documented file format. In some cases, Adobe Photoshop will itself violate the format specification. The primary goal is for the plugin to interchange reliably with Photoshop.

Memory usage

Photoshop allows layers to be smaller than the image. Paint.NET, however, uses layers with the same dimensions as the image. A PSD file with large dimensions and many layers will thus take up substantially more memory when loaded into Paint.NET than when loaded into Photoshop. In some cases, this will cause Paint.NET to run out of memory, and the file will not be loadable.

However, we still do the best that we can with this limitation -- when saving PSD files, we will crop the layer to the smallest non-transparent rectangle so that the file can be loaded efficiently back into Photoshop.

Layer blend modes

Paint.NET blend modes do not correspond one-to-one with Photoshop blend modes. Currently, the following transformation is used when saving:

Paint.NET blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	norm
Multiply	mul
Additive	norm
ColorBurn	div
ColorDodge	idiv
Overlay	over
Difference	diff
Lighten	lite
Darken	dark
Screen	scrn

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the documented PSD file format, and are saved as normal layers instead:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are loaded as normal layers instead.

hue
sat
colr
lum
diss
hLit
sLit
smud

Speed of operation

The plugin will never be as fast as Photoshop itself, which can load large chunks of the binary directly into memory as its native representation of the image. In contrast, this PSD plugin must convert to the internal Paint.NET image representation on load, and to the Photoshop file format on save.

To speed up this conversion, the plugin is (mostly) parallelized at a coarse granularity. Thus, loading and saving of large multilayer files will be considerably faster on a multi-core or multi-processor machine. Single-layer images will not benefit as much.

The parallelization is not perfect. The granularity is too coarse, and some sequential segments remain. The intention is to improve the parallelization of the plugin after Paint.NET has been retargeted to the .NET Framework 4.0, which includes the Parallel Extensions for .NET.

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:04:49 GMT

This is a Paint.NET plugin for loading and saving Photoshop .PSD files. It was written by Frank Blumenberg in 2006, and has been maintained by Tao Yue since 2010.

Tao's web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Tao's email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

Installation

Simply unzip and move PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Discussion

Bug Reporting and Patches

Features

Layers
Masks (loading only: merged into the layer)
RLE-compressed files
The following color modes can be loaded.
- 32 Bit-RGBA
- Gray scale
- Indexed
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Duotone (as gray scale)
- Lab
Only RGBA images are saved out, since Paint.NET uses RGBA internally.

Limitations

Memory usage

Layer blend modes

Paint.NET blend modes do not correspond one-to-one with Photoshop blend modes. Currently, the following transformation is used when saving:

Paint.NET blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	norm
Multiply	mul
Additive	norm
ColorBurn	div
ColorDodge	idiv
Overlay	over
Difference	diff
Lighten	lite
Darken	dark
Screen	scrn

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the documented PSD file format, and are saved as normal layers instead:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are loaded as normal layers instead.

hue
sat
colr
lum
diss
hLit
sLit
smud

Speed of operation

Updated Wiki: Home

taoyue — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:04:34 GMT

This is a Paint.NET plugin for loading and saving Photoshop .PSD files. It was written by Frank Blumenberg in 2006, and has been maintained by Tao Yue since 2010.

Web page: http://www.taoyue.com/
Email address: taoyue@alum.mit.edu

Installation

Simply unzip and move PhotoShop.dll to the "FileTypes" folder in the directory where Paint.NET is installed.

Discussion

Bug Reporting and Patches

Features

Layers
Masks (loading only: merged into the layer)
RLE-compressed files
The following color modes can be loaded.
- 32 Bit-RGBA
- Gray scale
- Indexed
- CMYK
- Multichannel CMY
- Duotone (as gray scale)
- Lab
Only RGBA images are saved out, since Paint.NET uses RGBA internally.

Limitations

Memory usage

Layer blend modes

Paint.NET blend modes do not correspond one-to-one with Photoshop blend modes. Currently, the following transformation is used when saving:

Paint.NET blend mode	Photoshop blend mode key
Normal	norm
Multiply	mul
Additive	norm
ColorBurn	div
ColorDodge	idiv
Overlay	over
Difference	diff
Lighten	lite
Darken	dark
Screen	scrn

The following Paint.NET blend modes are not available in the documented PSD file format, and are saved as normal layers instead:

Reflect
Glow
Negation
Xor

The following Photoshop blend modes do not exist in Paint.NET, and are loaded as normal layers instead.

hue
sat
colr
lum
diss
hLit
sLit
smud