RetouchPi PSD Editor: Open, Edit and Save Layered PSD Files

A flattened picture is one array of pixels; a layered PSD is a column of rectangles, each with its own name, visibility and blend mode. The difference is not on the canvas - the canvas looks identical - it is in the Layers panel at the right: this page's sample opens as 26 layer rows and 3 groups, the groups folded until you open the triangle at the head of the row.

• A row is a layer, and a group is a row too. Every row carries an eye icon (visibility), a thumbnail and a name box; a group row adds a triangle and a collapse control, and only when it is open do you see the rows it holds.
• The name box edits in place. That is exactly what the round-trip measurement did: select a row, type a token you will recognise, save, reopen - the name is still there.
• Switching the eye off is not deleting. The row stays in the panel and in the file; it simply stops painting onto the canvas, and one more click on the eye brings it back.

The sample is a real design file (an admission poster, 1000 x 1000, 8-bit RGB), not a three-layer file made for a demo - among the 26 rows are colour shapes, circular photos and text rows, which is what somebody else's working file actually looks like.

The table below was run back to back on one machine, in one bundled Chromium, late on 2026-10-09. The timings are probe timestamps taken around each step rather than numbers copied from a spec sheet, and the sizes are the real byte counts of the files on disk.

This is the only question the page really has to answer, because a flattened save can also call itself a PSD. So the saved file was read back field by field against the PSD container's own header layout: 8BPS version 1, 1000 x 1000, 4 channels, 8-bit RGB, and 29 layer records in the layer and mask section - 26 layers plus 3 group divider records, exactly the 26 rows and 3 groups counted in the panel; the rename token sits in the luni (Unicode layer name) field.

• The gap between 29 and 26 is the three group dividers. A group shows as one row in the panel but lives in the file as an opening record plus a </Layer group> divider; the counts matching is what says the saved structure is the one you were looking at.
• Visibility is a bit in the record, not a rendering trick. After reopening, the hidden row still has no eye icon - had the save flattened visibility, every row would come back lit.
• The size moves from 40,082,770 to 39,651,513 bytes. What disappears is ancillary data in the original that this editor does not write back; not one layer, group or mask is missing.

Handing a file in carries no preset command, so the menu paths are written out verbatim: open is File ▸ Open, and saving layered is File ▸ Save as PSD. The editing in between has no fixed recipe: 54 tools, 10 layer styles, masks and selections live in the toolbar and the Layer menu, while renaming and visibility are clicks straight on the Layers panel.

• Renaming and visibility are on the panel, not in a menu. Select a row and type in the name box; one click switches the eye. Those two are what the round-trip measurement actually changed.
• Masks are where this family of edits lands. The one-click cutout produces a layer mask rather than a new picture, leaving every pixel of the source layer untouched; the mask can still be inverted, feathered or painted by hand.
• Order and grouping change by dragging. Rows drag up and down and into groups, and those relationships are written back with the layer records on save.

There are three roads out and each carries something different; saying which is what beats a bare "exports supported":

• The save carries the structure. Save as PSD writes back layers, groups, masks, visibility and names - the 29 records read back above; transparency survives whole only on this road.
• PNG / JPEG / WebP carry the picture. All three flatten onto the background colour (alpha = 255 in the corners), which is design rather than fault: they have no layers to hold. This is the road for shipping something to be looked at.
• TIFF and SVG carry the middle ground. TIFF keeps quality for the next step of a pipeline; SVG writes the mask as one <mask>, which is transparency's exit on the vector side.

PDF at 72 dpi, MP4 / WebM with a long edge up to 1280, slices and artboards are in the export menu too; this page only covers the three roads that concern layers.

Half the value of a capability page is in the word "not". This page does not claim:

• No 16-bit editing. 16-bit PSD and TIFF files open, but they narrow to 8 bits on read; "opens 16-bit files" is true, "edits in 16 bits" is not.
• No PSB or 32-bit opening. Both are refused by name with a reason and the document is left alone - a clear refusal beats a silent failure.
• A transparent PNG export is not on the menu. PNG / JPEG / WebP cannot carry layers, so they flatten onto the background colour; transparency travels only with PSD and SVG.
• No offline claim, and no promise that files never leave the machine. Ordinary retouching - decode, edit, save, export - stays on this machine; AI generation and AI edits are the one step that reaches a server, priced in credits and quoted before you commit.