Photoshop File Reduction Trick by Zubby

In a good mood so I thought I'd share one of my favorite Photoshop tricks.
This has saved me tons of time. Try it.

Erik Ko (head of UDON) showed me this Photoshop Sorcery when I joined the studio back in 2003 and I've been using it ever since.

ericktube20 Featured By Owner Edited Jan 25, 2016 Hobbyist

whatt? 2003??? 12 years ago you should share bru ------____-------

Axigan Featured By Owner Oct 20, 2015 Professional General Artist

WOW!!, thank you so much for this!!

manthx Featured By Owner Sep 7, 2015 Professional Digital Artist

Pretty useful.

Blacku-draws Featured By Owner Jun 23, 2015 Hobbyist Digital Artist

OOH cool, thansk for sharing!

TwiggyStone Featured By Owner Jun 9, 2015 Professional Filmographer

Wow. Awesome!

daptosto Featured By Owner Jun 4, 2015 Student Traditional Artist

Wow. Thanks man.

Hideyoshi Featured By Owner Jun 3, 2015 Professional Digital Artist

awesome, thanks!

DTJB Featured By Owner Jun 1, 2015 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Dwa!

xland333 Featured By Owner May 28, 2015

wow. thanks!

Smaggers Featured By Owner May 28, 2015

Wow, that's nuts. Presumably that's a preview pic being stored in there. I wonder if it makes a difference to load times?

WyntonRed Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Digital Artist

I save a lot of work on the cloud- this is mad useful!

Emperorkarsa Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

Oh wow that is a nifty little work around.

gapriest Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 General Artist

You can essentially do the same thing by simply turning off "Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility" in the File Handling Preferences.

When it's turned on, a flattened version of the file is saved for software compatibility purposes.

LordAkiyama Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Excellent tip! Thanks!

Chuckmingus Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

Hard drive is sooo happy

Luran-V Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thanks for sharing!

nfteixeira Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Digital Artist

Wow! Really?! Gotta try this! Thanks! Wink/Razz

c0nr4d Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

Awesome. Thanks so much.

BioWorkZ Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Digital Artist

Just tested it and it worked!!!

FUCKIN' GENIUS!!!!

luckydragonbb Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

Good to know.

ZedEdge Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional General Artist

Dude! Thanks so much!

masterofshadows Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

I did not know this, it makes no sense, but hey: Adobe. Thanks!

handsomeape Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Filmographer

nice!! thank you for sharing

mikebeals Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Hobbyist Digital Artist

That's Awesome Thanks for Sharing!

SteveMillersArt Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Digital Artist

wow, so simple and yet wouldn't have thought XD thanks for sharing

digitallyfanged Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional General Artist

this is super spiffy... but I really like seeing thumbnails of files as I sort through them. (I have a plugin for windows that lets me display them) so I'm super torn here...

StudioSmugbug Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Digital Artist

THANK YOU! So helpful!

KIRKparrish Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Digital Artist

BRILLIANT!

shaoran100 Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

thank u

DarkSSJShinji Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

Now WHY didn't I figure this out beforehand!?
For almost 8 years, I've used Photoshop without knowing this trick!

...What else have you been hiding from us?

JBellio Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Digital Artist

A WITCH!!! (awesome trick. thanks thanks!)

The-Cake-is-a-Pie Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

So why would changing layer visibility make any bit of difference either way? Doesn't it just compile the same information into the supported format, whether you see it in the Photoshop editor program or not?

Zubby Featured By Owner May 27, 2015

Photoshop creates a high res preview of the file when it saves. You can get a similar file reduction effect by creating a blank white layer on top of all of your layers and save it out as well. Since the image preview is just a pure white image, it takes up pretty much no extra file space.

$:iconfractaldragon:$

Fractaldragon Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Artisan Crafter

Nice little trick!

DenisSavoie Featured By Owner May 27, 2015 Professional Photographer

Not so strange. It has to render a preview of all the visible layers and consider their opacity on save, so it they're NOT visible the file size drops.