Basically what the title says. I have already looked at the *.psd section of the Krita Manual so I know why it generally isn’t considered a good file format, however for my very specific use case I fear it may be the only option I have.
To make a long story short, I’ve got Syncthing set up on my laptop, my Google Pixel phone, and my iPad to sync things like MP3s, musicals, and resources for TTRPGs across all of my most used devices, and because using Krita is not typically the most portable solution given I use a rather bulky laptop and a drawing tablet at minimum, the idea of being able to sync certain artworks between my laptop and my iPad on Procreate is rather appealing to me. The only main issue is that PSD files are the only way that this would work for my purposes, as if I were actively working on a piece, I’d need to have access to all of my separate layers. TIFF files aren’t an option either here, as it is my understanding that Procreate cannot import the type of TIFF files that support layers.
So, I’m wondering if anyone else has personal experience with using psd files with Krita for similar purposes, and whether or not you’d consider it worth the effort. What exactly are the issues I could encounter if I went ahead with this idea? Is it, like, gonna explode my PC or something? (Kidding on that last part, but I do have real anxiety over potentially messing something up in a way that’s irreversible).
If you want to interchange with Procreate, PSD is really your only option. Ideally, save your work as a KRA file in Krita and then use File → Export to save a separate PSD file for interchange, that way you don’t lose anything irreversibly. Depending on what you use, the PSD file will be missing more or less information that you’ll have to fix up manually, alpha inheritance/clipping being the main one probably.
Seconding working primarily in KRA and exporting to PSD. Even when opening a Krita-created PSD in Krita, there are issues with things like text, so it’s not a roundtrip-safe format. Paint layer content should be fine, but vector layers, masks, layer effects, etc are likely to have issues and should be avoided (or rasterised/flattened as soon as possible) if you need to work on a document in different software.
You should also check that Procreate can even open Krita-created PSDs. The version of Photoshop I have can’t, I’m guessing Krita writes a newer version of the format, and Krita offers no backwards compatibility options. I would guess recent versions of Procreate can, but it’s best to check now rather than when you really need it.
Last year, I tried to send my working .kra file in PSD format for my teammate, and she couldn’t open it at all on either Photoshop or Photopea, or perhaps both. I can’t recall. But yeah, I personally avoid and dislike using that export format. Opening .psd on Krita feels very heavy and not always reliable either. imo.
This might just a detail but might be worth mentioning about the psd madness.
When i was learning how to rig for vtubers you need a psd file format to drop inside the application to send what you drew, no other format is accepted.
The hack is to create a psd file on Photoshop or csp then take it into krita work on it, remember to never use masks or anything ( you can save as kra if you want as you work ) and export when your done to psd. And the app would accept it perfectly. ( it just does )
Also worth mentioning that creating a psd file on photoshop is different from creating it in csp and the same is true for all others. They are all different there is no consistency. Each psd source gets recognized different so you need to know the end application your gonna finish into. The app i was using liked Photoshop psds the most.
My idea is that when it was created the psd file have a tag of the source or something of the sort.
Good luck with the psd crazy.