Photoshop®™ files are ever popular and there can be many occasions when you need to accommodate them into your workflow. Perhaps a supplier or another department in your company use them or you use Photoshop®™ yourself to achieve a certain effect.  

AVA supports many elements from within Photoshop®™ files such as effect and text layers as well as maintaining any paths which are already in the file and we can save these files and maintain all of these elements in the saved file.

Benefits of the Photoshop®™ interface with AVA

These include:

Flattened Image included in the file - when you save a file in Photoshop®™, make sure you save with the Layers option activated and activate Maximize Compatibility as this improves the file compatibility with other applications such as AVA.

In AVA, Photoshop®™ files open with each component layer as an image or an alpha mask, and an additional layer called Flattened Image is created to preview the overall design. The Flattened Image is the combined effect of all the component layers.

• Photoshop®™ attributes (curves, text layers, adjustment layers, etc.) are retained in the file.  Effect layers have a dedicated layer in AVA and retain their name, but cannot be edited. The result of the effect is only viewable in the image called Flattened Image.
• A curve effect in Photoshop®™ is represented by a graph whereas in AVA, it is represented by a grid. If you save the file in AVA, the effect layer will be retained and still editable in the Photoshop®™ file.
• Photoshop®™ paths are retained in the file - if you have created a path in Photoshop®™ and saved the file, when you import it into AVA and save it again, next time the file is opened in Photoshop®™, the path is still included. The path is opened as a vector layer in AVA, which allows it to be manipulated.
• Photoshop®™ files are modifiable in AVA - any pixel changes made and saved in AVA are taken into account the next time you open the file in Photoshop®™.

1. Copy and paste an element in AVA.
2. Save the file. When you open the file in Photoshop®™, you may get a warning saying the file has been modified and do you want to apply the changes or not.
3. To apply the changes click on Update.

• The layer mode used when saving files in PSD format can be selected – Photoshop®™ has a different image model to AVA, meaning that all the layers in the file have to be of the same type e.g. all RGB images or all CMYK images rather than a mixture of different types within the same file. Therefore, Photoshop®™ does not accept mixed files such as a file made up of a CMYK image and individual spot layers.
• In order to achieve this when saving a file in PSD format, the software will look at the most popular mode used in the file and suggest the most appropriate mode. The chosen mode can be overridden if required.
  If you activate the item Save ‘PS_CombinedImage’ layers, this layer will be kept within the file. Otherwise, it will be removed from the file.
• Embedded profiles are applied to all layers – the representation of the file in AVA is similar to Photoshop®™. 

PSB file format

AVA also handles PSB format, .psb, which is the Adobe® Photoshop®™ large file format. This format can handle up to 300,000 pixels whereas the traditional .psd format only handles a maximum of 30,000 pixels.  To save in this format, select File > Save As, and choose PSB for the format drop down menu.