PSD files are used by Adobe Photoshop image manipulation application. It can contain a number of raster images, layers, masks, vectors, text, formatting as well as settings for filters and other effects that are specific to the program. This format supports RGB, CMYK, Monochrome, Grayscale, Duotone, Indexed Color, Lab color and multi-channel color. Even though they are proprietary format, other programs can also open (if not edit) them with the right codec. Mac OS has native support for display PSD files.
Open PSD File on Windows OS
- Look for an PSD file you need to open in Windows Explorer and double-click on it
- If the file doesn’t open automatically and you see a “Windows can’t open a file” message then you should search for a program which can open PSD file
- If you have a program which can open PSD file installed on your computer then launch that program and select “File” and then “Open” or similar options from its menu to open the PSD file
- If you don’t have the program installed then you need to try searching for “PSD wiki”, “how to open PSD file” in the search engine.
- Once you find the application, install it on your computer
- After the program is installed double-click on the PSD file to open it
File extensions are used by Windows operating system to specify what kind of information is stored in the file. Every file in Windows OS needs to have file extension and file extensions are used by Windows to determine which application it should use to open the file. Every application installed on Windows OS places information about which extensions it could open into the Windows registry and Windows uses this information to determine which application it should launch when user double-clicks on the file. If application which can open PSD file is not installed, then Windows will show ‘Windows can’t open PSD file’ message and buttons to either select an application on the computer which can open the file or to search the web for the application which can open PSD file.