Managing Very Large Multilayered file

[Sanpanza]

I have a very large multilayered file (5760 X 570 / 19 layers) and am at the max size because PS won't save any images over 4 Gigs.

I thought perhaps that using linked smart objects might make it a lighter weight file but it is looking like it may not reduce the size. I don't want to break up the file because I need to see how all layers relate to one another and make changes on the fly. My process is to Place a linked file into the master document and then need be duplicate it (command J) rather than place the same linked file again. I am not getting any efficiency this way.

I would deeply appreciate any thoughts on managing large multilayered files to make it workable.

[Chuck Uebele]

The cutoff for PSD files is 2 gb, but I don't recall a 4 gb cutoff for PSB files. Have you tried to save it as that?

[gener7]

To add to the good advice Chuck already gave, PSB would be listed as "Large Document Format" in the file formats drop down menu.

PSB can go up to 300,000 px x 300,000 px and a max theoretical file size of 4 exabytes, that means 4 Billion Gigabytes. Yes. Gigabytes, but given the software and hardware limitations, 90 GB the practical limit.

Another very important bit of advice: Any important multilayer projects should have some sort of versioning backup. Photoshop files do have accidents and you want spares to recover. There is no magic software that can restore a large layered file you spent days on.

Gene

[D Fosse]

Yes, PSD < 2GB, TIFF < 4GB.

PSB will handle anything bigger than that. To get a Bridge preview for these large files you need to change a Bridge preference for "Don't Process Files Larger Than..."

[davescm]

PSB can go up to 300,000 px x 300,000 px and a max theoretical file size of 4 exabytes, that means 4 Billion Gigabytes. Yes. Gigabytes, but given the software and hardware limitations, 90 GB the practical limit.

I wonder how many years it will be before that psb file size is not big enough

Dave

[gener7]

Hi Dave,

PSB was introduced with Photoshop CS in 2003 when 32 bit apps were king. So perhaps another 15 years? I guess there is some supercomputer mapping the universe that might have a need for it.

[davescm]

It's for when we are reading the fine text on 15 metre screens and all have multi giga pixel cameras on our phones 

Dave

[D Fosse]

gener7  wrote

PSB was introduced with Photoshop CS in 2003 when 32 bit apps were king

Believe it or not, but people were making GB files back then too - with 4GB RAM on 32 bit systems. I remember the chief PS architect at the time, Scott Byer, wrote some pieces on "heavy lifting", meaning files of 1GB or more. That's still a rather big file.

We had some nifty tricks to make it work - one was the so-called 3GB switch in Windows, which would allow not 2, but 3GB address space to applications like Photoshop. It was risky business throwing that switch, because it might mean there wasn't enough address space left for OS and drivers. You might get BSODs. So you usually had dual boot, one with and one without the switch.

Then we had RAID0 arrays for the scratch disk. Most of the disks in the case were for PS scratch. That was an absolute necessity. Nothing else was fast enough.

But it worked! It was amazing what Photoshop was able to work its way through. It took a while, disks spinning frantically - but it got there.

[gener7]

I never worked with more than 200 MB files in those days, yet I can understand the hoops you must have put your machines through to tackle the serious work. I knew of the 3 GB switch, but luckily never had a need for it.

Life sure is better these days.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

I am wondering if you have some “unwanted“ metadata... work on a duped copy and try:

Prepression: Metadata Bloat – photoshop:DocumentAncestors