Old Photoshop files inaccessible

[adams_j]

I am a Mac user. For a period about 15 years ago I was using a machine with Photoshop installed. I now do not have Photoshop in any version. But I have around 200 photos which will not open. In some cases their thumbnails are visible, but for all I am offered the message "Photoshop 3.0 is required to open this file."

The files have no extensions.

I have tried adding .psd, but have not yet found a means to open them.

I would be grateful for advice on how to make these usable now – for example in Apple's Photos.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Can you open them in Preview?

Are you sure you saved psd back then? What about tif, jpg, eps?

[JJLAPIN]

If you have iPhoto on your Mac simply click and drag an image on to iPhoto, which has some editing features.

[adams_j]

Thanks, JJLAPIN, I no longer have iPhoto on my machine. Does it have special powers not available in Photos?

I have tried importing to both Photos and Aperture. On each occasion it imports the image of the message "Photoshop 3.0 is required to open this file."

[NB, colourmanagement net]

Hi adams.j,

ah, OK, so photos isn't working, I don't think the old iPhoto would have done any better - please have a look at my reply and try those other options.

it would be good to know how you get on

[adams_j]

Dear Neil,

GIMP appears to be doing the job.

Many thanks for your help – some of these images have great sentimental value.

Yours,

Jonathan

[adams_j]

Dear Neil,

GIMP appears to be doing the job.

Many thanks for your help – some of these images have great sentimental value.

Yours,

Jonathan

[NB, colourmanagement net]

Hi adams.j

hope I can help

So, you have old Photoshop files which you can't open on a Mac. You didn't say what version of OSX you're using, it may make a difference to the advice you need but there goes anyway.

I am guessing that you are simply double clicking the files name in the mac finder which is when the error message about Photoshop 3 pops up?

For now, I'd avoid adding ".psd" to the end of the filename because

1: you don't KNOW it's a .psd file and

2:  the psd filetype is pretty much for for photoshop (and a few other Adobe apps) only. It's a special file format.

If you did save as .psd filetype from Photoshop a while back then you may have files which it seems only Photoshop can open now. But there are some ideas below, please read on.

First try this:

if you highlight the filename in it's folder and click the spacebar on your keyboard do you get a window open showing the image? If so you may see "open in preview" at the top of the frame. If you click that then save the file will open in preview next time you double click it. However, if i try this with a psd file then it offers "open in Photoshop" so that may not help you.

Also, OSX has an application called "photos", what I do with files I'd like in my "photos" library is to open the "photos" app. then go to the menu file/import, select the file and it should be added to your library so you can view and edit it there. I am using OSX 10.10 and  when I test it on a .psd file I can import then open it. But the layers in the file (if any) will have been flattened, maybe that’s OK for you?

If the OSX "Photos" app is telling you that the files are incompatible and my spacebar tip above did not help, then maybe you need Photo editing app like GIMP (it's open source freeware) that can open psd files. [ download it here: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/  ]. Gimp can open a psd but it can't work with the all layers, so they'll need to be rasterised. Why not try it?

It's not an exactly straight forward software to use so ionce tyo get the files open maybe save as tif and then they will be more widely compatible.

The "photopea" online editor might work too. [ https://www.photopea.com/ it works on a .psd file for me and shows the layers properly too.

There are other options, if none of the above helps try googling "open a psd file without photoshop"

If your files are tif or Jpeg all, the above options should work fine too.

I hope this helps

please come back and let us know how it goes.

if sot helped, please do mark my reply as "helpful" and if you're OK now, please mark it as "correct answer" so that others who have similar issues can find the solution

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement.net

[adams_j]

Dear Neil,

Many thanks for your full answer.

I'm using OS10.12.3

I'm familiar with the space bar quick view and the link to open in Preview. Interestingly when I try this with a file with .psd extension it still offers Preview. In all cases I still get the "Photoshop 3.0 is required to open this file." message.

The message appears with a double click and also when opening from within Preview, Photos, and Aperture. When imported to Photos or Aperture it appears not so much as an error message as as a low resoluton image of the type.

I haven't added the extension .psd to all the mages, just to two or three copies as an experiment.

If Photos would import the files with the layers flattened, I wouldn't be too bothered. I think I probably won't want to rework them now.

Thanks for the suggestions of photopea and GIMP. I shall try them and report back.

Jonathan

[Jeff Arola · Accepted solution]

Maybe you were using Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2.0 on your mac?

Those files would be PDD files a form of PSD files.

Gimp should open them, but any text layers won't show unless the image had been merged in PhotoDeluxe before saving.

https://www.gimp.org/

[adams_j]

PhotoDeluxe 2.0 sounds right, now that I read it and GIMP appears to be coping with my problem.

Happily I dont think any of them have text layers.

Many thanks.

Jonathan