.psd files need a little work
Long time user of iView Media Pro who was not happy when Microsoft bought this software. You could see almost right away they didn't really care about it. Very happy it is now out of their hands.
I brought this issue up in Microsoft's Expression Media forums, but they never addressed it. Hopefully, PhaseONE will.
We refuse to save our .psd Photoshop files with Maximum Compatibility turned on due to the huge amount of wasted disk space having it on creates. It served a purpose at one time to allow users of Photoshop 2.5 and earlier versions to open version 3 layered .psd files. Necessary since those earlier versions didn't support layers. The compatibility mode simply builds a hidden flattened version of the layered document into the .psd file. That's what the older versions of PS saw when they opened version 3 or later documents. If the layered file were saved to a flattened TIFF that took up 100MB of disk space, that's how much larger your .psd file would be with Maximum Compatibility turned on. Now multiply that by thousands of files and figure out how much disk space you're losing to a function that has been outdated for over a decade. And yet, programs still insist on displaying and using an icon view of that layer instead of just using the desktop icon.
We upgraded to Expression Media 1 from iView Media Pro hoping it would fix an issue on Intel based Macs, but it didn't. Neither does Expression Media 2. Here's the issue:
In iView Media Pro, and Expression Media 1 and 2, all versions will correctly build a preview of .psd files saved without compatibility mode turned on IF you are running the program through Rosetta, so it runs as a PowerPC app. That and you of course need to have the check box on for "Use built-in thumbnails (if available)" under the Thumbnails and Previews settings. However, if you run Expression Media as a native Intel app, then you DO NOT get a preview of the same .psd files, even if you have the check box on to use built-in thumbnails.
At some point here, you can bet Apple is going to drop Rosetta emulation for PPC apps from OS X. So the request is to please, please, pretty please, fix Expression Media to use built-in thumbnails when run natively on Intel based Macs.
I brought this issue up in Microsoft's Expression Media forums, but they never addressed it. Hopefully, PhaseONE will.
We refuse to save our .psd Photoshop files with Maximum Compatibility turned on due to the huge amount of wasted disk space having it on creates. It served a purpose at one time to allow users of Photoshop 2.5 and earlier versions to open version 3 layered .psd files. Necessary since those earlier versions didn't support layers. The compatibility mode simply builds a hidden flattened version of the layered document into the .psd file. That's what the older versions of PS saw when they opened version 3 or later documents. If the layered file were saved to a flattened TIFF that took up 100MB of disk space, that's how much larger your .psd file would be with Maximum Compatibility turned on. Now multiply that by thousands of files and figure out how much disk space you're losing to a function that has been outdated for over a decade. And yet, programs still insist on displaying and using an icon view of that layer instead of just using the desktop icon.
We upgraded to Expression Media 1 from iView Media Pro hoping it would fix an issue on Intel based Macs, but it didn't. Neither does Expression Media 2. Here's the issue:
In iView Media Pro, and Expression Media 1 and 2, all versions will correctly build a preview of .psd files saved without compatibility mode turned on IF you are running the program through Rosetta, so it runs as a PowerPC app. That and you of course need to have the check box on for "Use built-in thumbnails (if available)" under the Thumbnails and Previews settings. However, if you run Expression Media as a native Intel app, then you DO NOT get a preview of the same .psd files, even if you have the check box on to use built-in thumbnails.
At some point here, you can bet Apple is going to drop Rosetta emulation for PPC apps from OS X. So the request is to please, please, pretty please, fix Expression Media to use built-in thumbnails when run natively on Intel based Macs.
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Yahoo! Never mind. 😄
Signed up for the free EM2 upgrade and just got our key today. Tried EM2 with our .psd files and they get a preview in Intel native mode! We had tried EM2 when it first came out and it wasn't fixed at the time. We hadn't given it another look since then. MS must have fixed the issue sometime in the SP1 or SP2 releases.0 -
Kurt-
I was interested in your post. I am running on a PC, Vista, and am also interested in reducing unnecessary file size. I tried the same test on Maximize/No-maximize, but I do not get a thumbnail in EM2.
EM2- I am using the "get EM2 from PhaseOne" offer
EM Thumbnail> Variable,High, Use Built In Thumbnails (if available)
Photoshop- using CS3, ImagePreview>Always Save (I do not see a Windows/Apple set of options in my Windows Ps)
The No-max Ps file was saved-as, Maximize unchecked (ie, Off)
In EM2, no thumbnail, instead only the message:
"Layered Photoshop file was not saved with composite image"
Do you or does anyone else have any ideas on this? I would definitely like to stop using Maximize in my Ps files, but I obviously need a thumbnail view in EM2.
Thanks. --Bill0 -
Wish I could make a suggestion, Bill. There are no Mac (or even Windows) specific preview options in the Windows versions of Photoshop. "Always" is the only choice to create them, as you know. Your EM settings are where they should be also. Sounds like something PhaseONE is going to need to address in the Windows version of EM. 0 -
Kurt-
Thanks for the response. I wanted to also ask you about the amount of file size savings you experience, as you go to larger files. I tried a "with Maximization" and "without" on a pretty large Psd file, and got this result:
"with Maximization" 147MB
"no-Maximization" 139MB
Is this consistent with your experience with files of this size?
I am less concerned about the "no-maximization" problem on these larger files, since there is only about a 6% size reduction. On smaller files, though, where I can see that maybe 40% of a "Maximization" Psd is the thumbnail, it would be very handy if PhaseOne gets the "no-Max" Psd thumbnails to show up for Windows EM2+.
--Bill0 -
From the testing I've done, it's roughly a size difference of adding in what a flattened TIFF of the image you're working on would be. So for example, if the .psd file you're working were saved to a TIFF and it took up 65MB of disk space, then that's how much larger your .psd file may be with Max compatibility on. A couple I just did to retest:
AnytimeGlamour max.psd 148.6 MB
AnytimeGlamour off.psd 96.1 MB
AnytimeGlamour.tif 66.7 MB
mixing guide closed max.psd 35.6 MB
mixing guide closed off.psd 28.8 MB
mixing guide closed.tif 13.6 MB
As you can see, difference varies depending on what kind of layers are in your file, and how large the flattened file would be. But it is always less with Max Comp off.
Edit: I remember a bit more now. A Photoshop .psd is a lossless compressed file itself. So what your layers are like affects how big of a difference there is between max comp and not. In the above, the larger file had lots of layers without a lot of flat color areas, so couldn't be compressed as much as the mixing guide, which although it had four image layers, there was a lot of flat white area in them.0 -
Kurt-
Good information, and much appreciated. It would definitely help if PhaseOne were to make use of thumbs without the need for Maximization, particularly since there is such variation re how much the size is increased with Max on.
I didn't realize until your post that the nature/composition of the layers so affected the size (of both a Psd file, and a flat Tif, for that matter). Amazing to think how much disk space is taken up with an archaic option, which is necessary to generate a thumbnail (...while a thumbnail actually exists in the Psd file!).
--Bill0 -
(...while a thumbnail actually exists in the Psd file!).
Yes! It's annoying in OS X, too. Up through Panther, 10.3.x, OS X displayed previews of .psd files with max comp off in the Open dialogue box for Photoshop and other apps no problem. Then Apple goofed something up in the Finder in Tiger, 10.4.x to the present, 10.6.x. Since 10.4.x, no app can show a preview in an Open dialogue box for a non max comp .psd. The really stupid part is that the files obviously have an icon since they are displayed on the desktop in any open folder window.0
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