Legacy ImageMagick Discussions Archive

..to save space, I'm compressing large .psd files by saving them as .tif (w/ layers & zip compression)
..files saved via PhotoShop as .tif can be read back into PhotoShop with layers,labels,etc intact.
..using IM to convert the .psd to .tif, the layers appear to be intact (they are recognized by IM, Gimp, Nuke, and even Preview.app on OSX) but somehow not recognized by PhotoShop CS3,4,5,6

https://app.box.com/s/hmkcbcsfvllfeyxs3alnnj718k0zgivn
PS.psd = CS5 PhotoShop psd
PS.tif = saved via PhotoShop (layers intact)
IM.tif = created via " convert PS.psd -compress lzw IM.tif "

..currently using ImageMagick 6.8.9-3 on OSX but have tried several versions on PC, OSX, and Linux
..also tried ImageMagick-6.9.3 (OSX precompiled binaries) because it apparently has "new tif handling stuff" but it seems to omit layers all-together

..have been poking at this for a couple years now, searching & literally hundreds of options but have yet to find the magick compatibility setting that allows PS to see layers in a .tif created by IM?

..Bonus if you figure out how to keep IM from loosing the alignment between layers by "automatically" trimming each one.

many thanks in advance, -Dm

I suspect a bug. I have not been able to get it to work either after trying lots of approaches. I do not know why IM insists on flattening all the layers when saving to tif. But it might have to do with multiple transparent layers in your PSD. I suggest you post to the Bugs forum and put a link back to this topic.

Thanks for the quick reply Fred, will do, ..if you cant get it to work nobody can.

BTW ..I'm a huge fan of all your fantastic work.

I don't know whether this post will be helpful and I don't know why, but after I create a layered .tif via e.g. this command (and this is graphicsmagick) :

gm convert 1.png 2.png 3.png outfile_layered.tif

--Krita recognizes it as a layered tif, and photoshop (CS6 and CS 2017) does not. I can save the resultant tif from krita to a .psd which both mentioned photoshop versions will recognize. Krita knows stuff imagemagic doesn't, it seems.

ImageMagick currently will create a multipage tif rather than a layered tiff from your command. The IM developers currently are looking into an option to create a proper layered tiff.