Can it be done and if so, how?

I've been Googling this and there are some free conversion sites online but the task of SVG-->PSD seems a rare animal. I found one that did it, but then when it was converted, my copy of Photoshop could not open it. However, I only have version 7 so I don't know whether a later version of PS can do it (doesn't matter much though, as I won't be buying any upgrades anytime soon).

I would prefer a free solution if it exists (naturally).

Thanks for any help!

-R

Hhmmm....PSD -- Adobe Photoshop according to my search? No there's certainly no native support in Inkscape for that. You'd have to convert "through" another format to get there. It seems to me that PDF is the most versatile, but I'm not very well versed on raster formats. It may well be that PNG would be fine. Try File menu > Export Bitmap first. If it's going to work at all, that would probably be the most likely to work. But if not, it can't hurt to try Save As Cairo png. However, note that Cairo png will not preserve any transparency, and may wreak havoc on other elements as well. If that fails, I'd try PDF. I guess your choice will depend on what Adobe Photoshop will open, but I imagine it should support both PNG and PDF?

try imagemagick toolkit...it has "convert" commandline tool. it's one of the most powerful image file format converters and command line manipulation programs around afaik.

It could just be on this machine but I found that Imagemagick produces a broken psd file. My old PS7 gives a "unspecified end of file" error. It is the same whether converted from an Inkscape svg file or an exported png bitmap.

A more sure way is to go via Gimp and there are options.
As a svg file, Gimp imports but if you have layers you lose them, it flattens the image.
As a png file, straight forward open file, single layer
As a Gimp xcf file, only recently realised that Inkscape has an xcf save option. This has the advantage that layers from Inkscape are preserved.

Once in Gimp it is a straight 'save-as' a psd file, any layers are saved. Opens ok in my PS7

using PCLOS 2012, Inkscape 0.48.2, Imagemagick 6.6.3, Gimp 2.6.12

Killer tip chriswww, thanks! This looks like quite a tool for sure. Another amazing freebie, like Inkscape!

I do wonder what will happen to the SVG layers in the process of conversion to PSD. I hope corresponding layers are created in PSD, because that is what should happen, but it won't surprise me if I learn things get garbled.

Looked at imagemagick's forums and one thread had the below pasted list. I guess "rw" means the format in question can be read AND written:

Re: create/write to psd file

Postby fmw42 » 2008-10-27T10:15:14+00:00

cuongvt wrote:

Hi all

does imamagick can create/read/write to psd file? (photoshop format)
thanks in advance


YES. These are all the format IM can read/write to (on my computer):

convert -list format
Format Module Mode Description
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A* RAW rw+ Raw alpha samples
AI PDF rw- Adobe Illustrator CS2
ART* ART rw- PFS: 1st Publisher Clip Art
ARW DNG r-- Sony Alpha Raw Image Format
AVI* AVI r-- Microsoft Audio/Visual Interleaved
AVS* AVS rw+ AVS X image
B* RAW rw+ Raw blue samples
BMP* BMP rw- Microsoft Windows bitmap image
BMP2* BMP -w- Microsoft Windows bitmap image v2
BMP3* BMP -w- Microsoft Windows bitmap image v3
BRF* BRAILLE -w- BRF ASCII Braille format
C* RAW rw+ Raw cyan samples
CAPTION* CAPTION r-- Image caption
CIN* CIN rw+ Cineon Image File
CIP* CIP -w- Cisco IP phone image format
CLIP* CLIP -w+ Image Clip Mask
CMYK* CMYK rw+ Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, and black samples
CMYKA* CMYK rw+ Raw cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and alpha samples
CR2 DNG r-- Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format
CRW DNG r-- Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format
CUR* CUR rw- Microsoft icon
CUT* CUT r-- DR Halo
DCM* DCM r-- Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine image
DICOM is used by the medical community for images like X-rays. The
specification, "Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine
(DICOM)", is available at http://medical.nema.org/. In particular,
see part 5 which describes the image encoding (RLE, JPEG, JPEG-LS),
and supplement 61 which adds JPEG-2000 encoding.
DCR DNG r-- Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image File
DCX* PCX rw+ ZSoft IBM PC multi-page Paintbrush
DDS* DDS r-- Microsoft DirectDraw Surface
DFONT* TTF r-- Multi-face font package (Freetype 2.3.5)
DNG DNG r-- Digital Negative
DOT DOT --- Graphviz
DPS DPS --- Display Postscript Interpreter
DPX* DPX rw+ SMPTE 268M-2003 (DPX 2.0)
Digital Moving Picture Exchange Bitmap, Version 2.0.
See SMPTE 268M-2003 specification at http://www.smtpe.org

EPDF PDF rw- Encapsulated Portable Document Format
EPI PS rw- Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format
EPS PS rw- Encapsulated PostScript
EPS2* PS2 -w- Level II Encapsulated PostScript
EPS3* PS3 -w+ Level III Encapsulated PostScript
EPSF PS rw- Encapsulated PostScript
EPSI PS rw- Encapsulated PostScript Interchange format
EPT EPT rw- Encapsulated PostScript with TIFF preview
EPT2 EPT rw- Encapsulated PostScript Level II with TIFF preview
EPT3 EPT rw+ Encapsulated PostScript Level III with TIFF preview
ERF DNG r-- Epson RAW Format
EXR* EXR rw+ High Dynamic-range (HDR)
FAX* FAX rw+ Group 3 FAX
FAX machines use non-square pixels which are 1.5 times wider than they
are tall but computer displays use square pixels, therefore FAX images
may appear to be narrow unless they are explicitly resized using a
geometry of "150x100%".

FITS* FITS rw- Flexible Image Transport System
FRACTAL* PLASMA r-- Plasma fractal image
FTS* FTS rw- Flexible Image Transport System
G* RAW rw+ Raw green samples
G3* FAX rw- Group 3 FAX
GIF* GIF rw+ CompuServe graphics interchange format
GIF87* GIF rw- CompuServe graphics interchange format (version 87a)
GRADIENT* GRADIENT r-- Gradual linear passing from one shade to another
GRAY* GRAY rw+ Raw gray samples
HISTOGRAM* HISTOGRAM -w- Histogram of the image
HTM* HTML -w- Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image map
HTML* HTML -w- Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image map
ICB* TGA rw+ Truevision Targa image
ICO* ICON rw+ Microsoft icon
ICON* ICON rw- Microsoft icon
INFO INFO -w+ The image format and characteristics
INLINE* INLINE r-- Base64-encoded inline images
IPL* IPL rw+ IPL Image Sequence
ISOBRL* BRAILLE -w- ISO/TR 11548-1 format
JNG* PNG rw- JPEG Network Graphics
See http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/ for details about the JNG
format.
JP2* JP2 rw- JPEG-2000 File Format Syntax
JPC* JPC rw- JPEG-2000 Code Stream Syntax
JPEG* JPEG rw- Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format (62)
JPG* JPEG rw- Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format
JPX* JPX rw- JPEG-2000 File Format Syntax
K* RAW rw+ Raw black samples
K25 DNG r-- Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image Format
KDC DNG r-- Kodak Digital Camera Raw Image Format
LABEL* LABEL r-- Image label
M* RAW rw+ Raw magenta samples
M2V MPEG rw+ MPEG Video Stream
M4V MPEG rw+ Raw MPEG-4 Video
MAP* MAP rw- Colormap intensities and indices
MAT MAT rw+ MATLAB image format
MATTE* MATTE -w+ MATTE format
MIFF* MIFF rw+ Magick Image File Format
MNG* PNG rw+ Multiple-image Network Graphics (libpng 1.2.24)
See http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/ for details about the MNG
format.
MONO* MONO rw- Raw bi-level bitmap
MOV MPEG rw+ MPEG Video Stream
MP4 MPEG rw+ MPEG-4 Video Stream
MPC* MPC rw+ Magick Persistent Cache image format
MPEG MPEG rw+ MPEG Video Stream
MPG MPEG rw+ MPEG Video Stream
MRW DNG r-- Sony (Minolta) Raw Image File
MSL* MSL rw+ Magick Scripting Language
MSVG SVG rw+ ImageMagick's own SVG internal renderer
MTV* MTV rw+ MTV Raytracing image format
MVG* MVG rw- Magick Vector Graphics
NEF DNG r-- Nikon Digital SLR Camera Raw Image File
NULL* NULL rw- Constant image of uniform color
O* RAW rw+ Raw opacity samples
ORF DNG r-- Olympus Digital Camera Raw Image File
OTB* OTB rw- On-the-air bitmap
OTF* TTF r-- Open Type font (Freetype 2.3.5)
PAL* UYVY rw- 16bit/pixel interleaved YUV
PALM* PALM rw+ Palm pixmap
PAM* PNM rw+ Common 2-dimensional bitmap format
PATTERN* PATTERN r-- Predefined pattern
PBM* PNM rw+ Portable bitmap format (black and white)
PCD* PCD rw- Photo CD
PCDS* PCD rw- Photo CD
PCL PCL rw- Printer Control Language
PCT* PICT rw- Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT
PCX* PCX rw- ZSoft IBM PC Paintbrush
PDB* PDB rw+ Palm Database ImageViewer Format
PDF PDF rw+ Portable Document Format
PDFA PDF rw+ Portable Document Archive Format
PEF DNG r-- Pentax Electronic File
PFA* TTF r-- Postscript Type 1 font (ASCII) (Freetype 2.3.5)
PFB* TTF r-- Postscript Type 1 font (binary) (Freetype 2.3.5)
PFM* PFM rw+ Portable float format
PGM* PNM rw+ Portable graymap format (gray scale)
PGX* PGX r-- JPEG-2000 VM Format
PICON* XPM rw- Personal Icon
PICT* PICT rw- Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT
PIX* PIX r-- Alias/Wavefront RLE image format
PJPEG* JPEG rw- Progessive Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF
PLASMA* PLASMA r-- Plasma fractal image
PNG* PNG rw- Portable Network Graphics (libpng 1.2.24)
See http://www.libpng.org/ for details about the PNG format.
PNG24* PNG rw- opaque 24-bit RGB (zlib 1.2.3)
PNG32* PNG rw- opaque or transparent 32-bit RGBA
PNG8* PNG rw- 8-bit indexed with optional binary transparency
PNM* PNM rw+ Portable anymap
PPM* PNM rw+ Portable pixmap format (color)
PREVIEW* PREVIEW -w- Show a preview an image enhancement, effect, or f/x
PS PS rw+ PostScript
PS2* PS2 -w+ Level II PostScript
PS3* PS3 -w+ Level III PostScript
PSD* PSD rw+ Adobe Photoshop bitmap
PTIF* TIFF rw+ Pyramid encoded TIFF
PWP* PWP r-- Seattle Film Works
R* RAW rw+ Raw red samples
RADIAL-GRADIENT* GRADIENT r-- Gradual radial passing from one shade to another
RAF DNG r-- Fuji CCD-RAW Graphic File
RAS* SUN rw+ SUN Rasterfile
RGB* RGB rw+ Raw red, green, and blue samples
RGBA* RGB rw+ Raw red, green, blue, and alpha samples
RGBO* RGB rw+ Raw red, green, blue, and opacity samples
RLA* RLA r-- Alias/Wavefront image
RLE* RLE r-- Utah Run length encoded image
SCR* SCR r-- ZX-Spectrum SCREEN$
SCT* SCT r-- Scitex HandShake
SFW* SFW r-- Seattle Film Works
SGI* SGI rw+ Irix RGB image
SHTML* HTML -w- Hypertext Markup Language and a client-side image map
SR2 DNG r-- Sony Raw Format 2
SRF DNG r-- Sony Raw Format
STEGANO* STEGANO r-- Steganographic image
SUN* SUN rw+ SUN Rasterfile
SVG SVG rw+ Scalable Vector Graphics (XML 2.6.16)
SVGZ SVG rw+ Compressed Scalable Vector Graphics (XML 2.6.16)
TEXT* TXT rw- Text
TGA* TGA rw+ Truevision Targa image
THUMBNAIL* THUMBNAIL -w+ EXIF Profile Thumbnail
TIFF* TIFF rw+ Tagged Image File Format (LIBTIFF, Version 3.8.2)
TIFF64* TIFF --- Tagged Image File Format (64-bit) (LIBTIFF, Version 3.8.2)
TILE* TILE r-- Tile image with a texture
TIM* TIM r-- PSX TIM
TTC* TTF r-- TrueType font collection (Freetype 2.3.5)
TTF* TTF r-- TrueType font (Freetype 2.3.5)
TXT* TXT rw- Text
UBRL* BRAILLE -w- Unicode Text format
UIL* UIL -w- X-Motif UIL table
UYVY* UYVY rw- 16bit/pixel interleaved YUV
VDA* TGA rw+ Truevision Targa image
VICAR* VICAR rw- VICAR rasterfile format
VID* VID rw+ Visual Image Directory
VIFF* VIFF rw+ Khoros Visualization image
VST* TGA rw+ Truevision Targa image
WBMP* WBMP rw- Wireless Bitmap (level 0) image
WMV MPEG rw+ Windows Media Video
WPG* WPG r-- Word Perfect Graphics
X* X rw+ X Image
X3F DNG r-- Sigma Camera RAW Picture File
XBM* XBM rw- X Windows system bitmap (black and white)
XC* XC r-- Constant image uniform color
XCF* XCF r-- GIMP image
XPM* XPM rw- X Windows system pixmap (color)
XPS XPS r-- Microsoft XML Paper Specification
XV* VIFF rw+ Khoros Visualization image
XWD* XWD rw- X Windows system window dump (color)
Y* RAW rw+ Raw yellow samples
YCbCr* YCbCr rw+ Raw Y, Cb, and Cr samples
YCbCrA* YCbCr rw+ Raw Y, Cb, Cr, and alpha samples
YUV* YUV rw- CCIR 601 4:1:1 or 4:2:2

* native blob support

Well hang on, that didn't work out as well as I thought it would. When I downloaded and installed it, it turned out to only be a very small app called "Imagemagick Display" that was simply an image viewer. I don't know where all the rest of that 55MB of the installation was...

I uninstalled it. It sounded good, but it no longer looks like it's the answer.

Maybe I should back up and describe why I wanted to know about going from SVG to PSD, and then ask a question. I'm about to go into the logo-making business, and I notice that most designers are mentioning in their sales pages that clients can have PSD files if they want them. This suggests to me that many clients have Photoshop and assume the designer is working in Photoshop also. I won't be... I'll be working in Inkscape.

So if a client were to want PSD files of their logo project, that would indicate that they want to be able to edit the whole project in PS (or be able to bring it to a different designer so that they can). But if the project isn't worked up in Photoshop, and the only PSD I have to give is a conversion from the native SVG to PSD, won't something get lost in the translation?

If so, I'm thinking maybe clients should all simply be told upfront that I don't work in PS and thus the usual custom of asking for a PSD won't really work. Or can a conversion to PSD from SVG actually yield something useful?

I've been hearing about ImageMagick for a long time, so I think it really is a legitimate program. Maybe you inadvertently downloaded the wrong file? Or maybe there were unusual installation instructions, or part of it was installed somewhere else, or something? I think whoever recommended it said it works from the command line, which means maybe there is no interface. If all you will be doing with it is convert SVG to PSD, you'll just have to learn a tiny bit of "commandline code" (I call anything without words "code". I actually don't know if the commandline uses a code.)

@Rizomorph

From your post assuming that you are using Windows. IM is a collection of command line applications for handling images, all of them very powerful. Go to the IM website and there are pages of examples, many read like sanskrit.

At its most basic, in a command window, and remember that you need to be in the same folder as the image you are converting, the command is

convert filename.svg filename.psd

Out of interest I did give it a try in WinXP with PS CS4 and the svg did convert and open but the 2 layers I had in the svg were flattened and transparency also lost. For some reason IM also creates very large psd files, the 4 KB test svg was 12 MB as a IM psd and only 200 KB as a Gimp psd.

I use IM all the time, it is very powerful, especially in a batch context where there are lots of files to process. In this case though, maybe Inkscape -> Gimp -> PS.psd is worth considering.

Unfortunately Photoshop, hence psd, is very much an industry standard but PDF is being increasingly used. Worth asking your client if PDF is acceptable. Still lose the layers though.

Thanks guys.

Rich, thanks, yeah the question here seems to be: is it going to work to not offer PSD files (because there's no point if the layers and structure are lost), but instead to just say "source files included" and just hope that the logo client is okay with the fact that the source file is SVG. If the client wants to have the ability to edit the project or bring it to another designer to edit it, they will just have to accept that the program to do that with is going to be Inkscape and not Photoshop.

On the other hand it would seem a little silly to me for a client to pay someone to conceive and make a logo, and then to later go in and change it. If they have the knowledge or artistic talent to change it, it seems they should have had the ability to make it themselves in the first place. I suppose they might want to just tweak a color or something subtle like that though.

rich2005,
Welcome to the forum!
I really appreciate your comments and expertise in this topic. We've not had many, or maybe any other questions about PSD format, so I was really at a loss.

Rhizomorph,
I can't speak to the logo business and the formats that are typically offered. But maybe you could keep SVG files of all the logos you make for clients, and give them the PSD. It really makes sense to me, if I were selling logos, to keep at least a copy of the finished version, but much better, the original SVG. Then you could edit easily in the future, if necessary. On the other hand, if I were a client paying for a logo, I think I might want a copy of the original SVG, as well as whatever finished format. Because after all, I'm paying for it. I don't know though, as I said, I'm not very familiar with this type of business.

Thanks for the welcome but I am no great expert on file formats. Mostly lurk here hoping that there will be some progress on that CMYK plugin.

@Rhizomorph
If you are making logos it depends where they end up
If a web page, don't see why psd or layers needed, give them a png file which supports transparency.

If for including in literature which will end up going to a commercial printer then it is another matter. Commercial printers are a pain, generally they do want psd and above all colour in CMYK format and sometimes a particular colour profile.

Since you have PS7 you can get there in a round-about-fashion. It looks like the windows version of Inkscape is missing the 'Save As' gimp xcf format so export each Inkscape layer as a png. Not difficult, choose the export page tab and hide all the layers except the one you are exporting. Gimp will "Open As Layers" all the pngs in one go. Save to a new psd file.

This is where it all goes wrong.
Gimp and Inkscape work in RGB mode, commercial printers want CMYK, Open the file in Photoshop 7 and in the Image menu change from RGB to CMYK colour. You will see a change in the colours. You can maybe try and tweak them back. Also have a look at the PS7 edit -> Colour settings dialog. You can change the embedded colour profile there.

You can also do this in Imagemagick if not bothered about layers. The basic command is
convert file.svg -colorspace cmyk file.psd
as before PS7 will not read this file but later PS versions might.

Illustrator can import SVG natively. I'm non-the-wiser but thought that professional logo and business card design would be done in something like Illustrator instead of a pixel shifting Photoshop. Surely you wouldn't originate work in Photoshop? That they may provide PSD file format to customers may be just the done thing, for now...as PSD is somewhat interchangeable format for programs, whilst AI is not. By the way afaik TIFF is still the most compatible and archive grade format; alas not vector based.
To little surprise, Adobe's file formats are not well supported outside their product range. Most programs not made by Adobe do not support fully features like color profiles, CMYK in pdfs, layers, scripting, etc. Bit of a strange monopoly on the technical details that go into the most portable document (PDF) format.
So after all that waffle.......the imagemagick convert tool can create layered PSD with adjoin option, but how to use that to go from layered SVG to layered PSD i don't know.

All the above is very true. The OP did say that he had PS7, I have that as well. OP not going to upgrade, I can understand that.

Some of the info is already in this forum, such as Save-As "Gimp with layers" xcf not working in MS Windows. The solution is there as well, export each layer as a png file and import into Gimp.

It can also be done with ImageMagick, you don't even need the -adjoin switch, it is implied. A few quirks, AFAIK IM throws away the first layer, so start with a blank one and the IM command is

convert blank.png bottomlayer.png middlelayer(s).png(s) toplayer.png -colorspace cmyk file.psd

Leave out the -colorspace cmyk switch and you get a grayscale image.

This produces a monster file but it does open in WinXP and PS7 (my linux IM makes a broken file for some reason). Some comparisons for the same image. IM (CMYK) psd = 68MB; Gimp (RGB) psd = 1MB; PS7 (CMYK) psd = 1.7MB.

There is a colour shift when moving from RGB colour space to CMYK, A few experiments and I found the best solution was, export layers from Inkscape, open with Gimp, save as a RGB psd, open in PS7, change the mode to CMYK and save from PS7.

Thanks for those posts guys, I have a feeling that they may come in handy sometime in the future. Overall though, I think that I am just going to buck the trend and not offer PSDs. It sounds way too complicated to do so. The only reason I was concerned about PSDs was, as I said earlier, that many logo designers seem to be saying that they do, so I thought maybe I needed to in order to compete. But as was pointed out, that is a little strange since it suggests that they are working up logo designs in PS which would seem like the wrong app to use for it. Illustrator seems like the app one would use, and in that case the source file is .ai, right?

I think I will just go with saying "source files included" and when it comes down to it, they will learn that I did not mean PSDs but rather, SVGs. Does this seem like it would be a mistake to any of you?

Inkscape is the first sophisticated graphics application (sophisticated = above the level of Paint) that I've ever used in my life that I was able to open up and start getting great results from immediately. By contrast, I have been trying to use PS and AI for YEARS and am still stumped and quickly bog down to a stop every time I try to use them for anything but the most simple things. Have I studied manuals and really worked to learn them? No, but as an instinctive type artist, I don't believe I should have to. After finding Inkscape, I have very serious suspicions that the level of complexity and new-user-unfriendliness they have was deliberately programmed into them in order to solidify the monopolization of graphics work by full-on pro graphic designers, and this stranglehold is just now starting to loosen thanks to Inkscape and others. Then again, I'm prone to liking conspiracy theories (did you know that GHW Bush was likely involved in the JFK assassination? Look into it).

I haven't used AI and PS that much. They seem overkill for most projects. inDesign though is really good for layouts, and has all the typography features any professional would want...and hence there's a learning curve. Most other layout programs don't measure up.
Since MS finally got on board with SVG, other companies/projects are following suit and increasingly supporting the format.
Adobe has dropped flash development for mobile devices. Yet to be seen what is their next move in the vector area.