A PSD viewer for people who need to see the file, not edit it
Plenty of people who need a PSD viewer are not designers. They are the client who was sent the source file, the developer handed a mockup to build from, or someone clearing out an old project drive. They want to look at the picture and maybe get a PNG out of it, and a full editor is a heavy install for that.
PSD Viewer shows the flattened composite that Photoshop saves inside a PSD, the same picture you would get if you exported it yourself. Make it the default app for .psd and the artwork opens on a double-click, or press Ctrl+O. The app reads the file and never writes to it, so opening a colleague's master file cannot change it.
It does not take the document apart. There is no layer list, no text editing and no blend modes. If you need to switch layers on and off, you need an editor; if you need to see the finished design and pass it on, this is the shorter path.
How to convert PSD to PNG or JPG
Open the PSD and click Convert on the command bar, or right-click the picture and choose Convert image. Under Convert, pick This image for one file or Whole folder for every image beside it. Choose a Format (PNG, JPG, BMP, PDF, ICO or TIFF), set Quality on the slider from 50 to 100, and convert. ICO output is scaled to fit 256 pixels.
PNG is the right choice for most design work, because flat color, type and sharp edges come through without compression artifacts, and transparency survives. JPG is smaller and fine for photographs. PDF is handy when the person receiving the design wants something they can open in a browser and print.
Checking a design before you send it
Zoom goes to 3200%, so you can inspect a logo edge or a line of small type at the pixel level. Press 0 for actual size and F to fit the window again. The info panel, on I, lists the resolution and file size, which answers the usual question of whether a banner was built at the size the brief asked for.
Under Behind the photo in Settings you can switch the backdrop between Near black, Mid gray and White, which helps when you are judging a light design against a dark interface or the reverse.
Browsing a folder of PSD mockups
Design folders tend to hold many versions of the same file. Press T for the folder ribbon and every image in the folder appears as a thumbnail strip, with the left and right arrow keys stepping through them. Turn on Go round at the end of the folder to loop from the last file back to the first.
