[CREATE] How open/free do you consider PSD file format?

[Cyrille Berger Skott]

On Wednesday 13 October 2010, Olivier BERTEN wrote:
>  I'm trying to write a Photoshop PAT codec for SwatchBooker but I'm
> stuck between my will to preserve as much information as possible, and
> the lack (or my lack of knowledge) of open file formats that could
> preserve all characteristics of these patterns... Some features like
> "multichannel" (multi-ink) or CMYK+alpha aren't available in any other
> format I know... Patterns like these are rather unusual, to say the
> less... but I'd like to support that format as completely as possible...
What about making/extending an open format ? You might be able to use .exr for 
that purpose (while not really open, the spec is at least freely available 
with a reference implementation).

> So the best solution, in term of content preservation, would be to save
> these patterns as PSD but I'm not really comfortable with including that
> possibility in my format. In the other hand, pretty much all free
> graphic applications are able to deal with that format...
PSD is everything but open/free. It is even so close that you have to sign a 
NDA to get access to the spec. Unless you stick to the outdated PS6.

-- 
Cyrille Berger Skott
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