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Chapter 02 · Files & formats
Photopea's file handling is the reason many people install it in the first place. It reads more than forty formats, converts almost all of them into a layered document on open, and writes a dozen on export. The architecture behind that is simple and worth stating plainly: PSD is the native format, and everything you open is converted into a PSD-style document internally. That single decision explains both why Photoshop files round-trip so well and why some non-Adobe formats lose details that do not map onto the PSD model.
PSD as the working format
Every file you open — a PNG, a JPEG, a Sketch document, a Figma export — becomes an internal PSD document. Layers, masks, blend modes, smart objects, type and vector shapes are all represented in that model, which is why a Photoshop file opened in Photopea looks like the file you sent. It is also why the safest thing you can do with an important document is keep it as PSD while you work and export to a delivery format at the end.
The practical consequence is that Photopea is not a format-agnostic editor in the way that, say, Affinity Photo is. It is a PSD editor that can import and export widely. If a format contains constructs that PSD cannot express, those constructs are approximated on import. That is normally invisible, but it becomes visible when you round-trip a design file repeatedly.
What it opens
The import list is unusually broad for a browser tool and it is organised around real workflows rather than format taxonomy. Adobe formats are covered including PSD, PSB, Illustrator files, PDF, InDesign and XD. Design tools are covered including Sketch, Figma, GIMP's XCF and CorelDRAW's CDR. Nine camera RAW formats are supported. The full raster, vector and HDR sets are listed below.
| Category | Formats | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe | PSD, PSB, AI, PDF, INDD, XD | PSB handles very large documents; INDD opens pages, shapes and text layers |
| Design tools | Sketch, Figma (.fig), XCF, CDR | Figma support arrived in version 4.6; structure is browsable and saveable as PSD |
| Camera RAW | DNG, NEF, CR2, CR3, ARW, RW2, RAF, ORF, FFF, .RAW | Opens through a dedicated import dialog, not Camera Raw |
| Raster | JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF (incl. 16-bit), WebP, HEIC, JPEG XL, TGA, PPM, ICO | HEIC and JPEG XL arrived in version 5.6 |
| Vector | SVG, EPS, DXF | DXF is AutoCAD drawing exchange, useful for signage and laser work |
| HDR / VFX | EXR, DDS | DDS is a DirectX texture format; EXR arrived in version 4.9 |
| Other | JP2, JPX | JPEG 2000 variants |
Two of these deserve a closer look because they are the ones people do not expect from a browser editor. InDesign files open with their pages, shapes and text layers visible, and the result can be saved as PSD or exported as JPEG or PNG. That is not a substitute for InDesign — you cannot reflow a publication — but it means a designer who receives an INDD and does not own InDesign can extract the artwork, which is often all that is needed. Figma files behave similarly: the full design structure is browsable and saveable as a layered PSD, which makes Photopea a practical bridge between a design team working in Figma and a print or asset pipeline that expects PSD.
How files get in
There are more routes in than most people realise, and the difference between them matters. The Open dialog on Ctrl+O is the obvious one. Dragging a file onto the browser window behaves differently depending on where you drop it: dropping onto the canvas inserts the file as a smart object layer inside the current document, while dropping onto the tab bar opens it as a new document. That distinction is easy to trigger by accident and worth learning deliberately, because inserting a photo as a smart object is often exactly what you want.
Pasting from the system clipboard with Ctrl+V works, which is the fastest way to get a screenshot into the editor. File > Open More offers From URL, From Storage and From Camera, and PSD templates are available from the same menu. There is also an experimental Take a Picture command that captures from a webcam or device camera.
The most interesting route is the File Handling API in Chrome and Edge. When Photopea is installed as a progressive web app, it registers itself as a handler for PSD, JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, GIF, SVG, PDF, TIFF, AI, PSB, XCF, Sketch, XD, PXD, CDR, EPS, ICO, JPX, JP2, TGA and DDS. That means double-clicking one of those files in your operating system's file browser opens it in Photopea, exactly as a native application would. Google documented this implementation as a case study, and it is the feature that most convincingly blurs the line between a web app and an installed program.
The RAW import dialog and its ceiling
Opening a RAW file presents a dedicated dialog with a histogram and a specific set of controls: white balance with temperature and tint, exposure, contrast, noise reduction with colour, protect-detail and strength controls, clarity, dehaze, saturation, texture and vibrance. That is a workable set for a quick development, and for someone who just needs a usable JPEG from a phone or camera RAW it is enough.
It is not Adobe Camera Raw, and the gap is large. Missing entirely are the tone curve, the colour mixer, colour grading, the detail and sharpening panel, optics and lens profile correction, geometry, calibration, and vignette and grain. The developer has acknowledged this directly, estimating roughly two weeks of work per missing panel and asking users to nominate which one they want first, with no committed timeline. That is an honest answer and it should be read as a roadmap statement rather than a promise.
If you develop RAW files in Lightroom or Camera Raw and rely on XMP sidecar files to carry your edits, Photopea will not help you. The developer's position is explicit: because the RAW interface does not support all the options Adobe Camera Raw does, importing an XMP would mean discarding ninety-nine per cent of its contents. Files are therefore neither read nor written. Plan on doing RAW development elsewhere and using Photopea for what happens after.
Saving, exporting and the three PDF modes
Saving is context-dependent in a way that surprises people. Ctrl+S replaces the source file on your device where the browser allows it, saves back to Google Drive if the file came from there, or sends the file to the API server if it was opened through the API. Shift+Ctrl+S always saves as PSD to your device, which is the safe choice when you are unsure. Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S opens Export As, where you choose the target format and resolution.
PDF export is the part that most often goes wrong, because the three checkboxes produce very different files and the interface does not explain the trade-offs.
| Setting | Result | What you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Rasterize All checked | Fully rasterised PDF that matches the screen exactly | Text is no longer editable in PDF editors; file is larger |
| Vectorize Text checked, Rasterize All off | Smaller, editable PDF with real text | Drop shadows, smart filters and warped smart objects may disappear |
| Both unchecked | Smallest PDF | All text renders in Times; some effects disappear |
For a print-ready file at a specific physical size, the reliable recipe is to set the resolution in Image > Image Size first, then export with Rasterize All checked. That produces a file that looks exactly like your canvas. If you need selectable text, accept that effects may drop and check the output before sending it anywhere.
One number to remember: PDF files are loaded at a fixed 144 pixels per inch, because PDF has no inherent resolution. If you open a PDF and find the pixel dimensions are not what you expected, that is why.
Batch conversion and metadata
File > Automate > Convert Formats converts a batch of images between formats in the browser, with no upload. Source formats can be mixed — JPEG, PNG, GIF, PSD, TIFF and WebP in the same run — and the result comes back as a ZIP archive. This is the closest thing Photopea has to a batch panel, and it is genuinely useful for the common job of turning a folder of mixed assets into a consistent format.
File > File Info, added in version 4.6, reads, edits and saves document metadata. That matters for anyone publishing images professionally, because metadata is where copyright, creator and description fields live, and stripping it is sometimes required before sharing. If metadata removal is the specific job, our own metadata remover does it in one step without opening an editor.
Importing brushes, fonts, shapes and actions
Resources are imported through the same Open dialog or by drag and drop. Fonts in TTF and OTF format, brushes in ABR, gradients, custom shapes in CSH and action sets in ATN all load this way and are added to the relevant panel. This is a quieter advantage than format support but arguably more important for daily work: a designer's accumulated brush library and action sets come across, so Photopea inherits years of accumulated tooling rather than starting from zero.
What this chapter means in practice
If your job is to open things and get usable output, Photopea is close to unmatched among free tools. The limits are specific rather than general: RAW development is shallow, XMP workflows are unsupported, and PDF export requires you to understand which of three modes you are choosing. Everything else in this chapter is a strength. Chapter 10 covers where the exported files go and how resolution is handled on the way out; chapter 11 covers the storage backends you can save to directly.