psd_tools.api

High-level API for working with PSD/PSB files.

This subpackage provides the user-facing API for psd-tools, offering Pythonic interfaces for manipulating Photoshop documents. It wraps the low-level psd_tools.psd binary structures with convenient methods and properties.

The main entry point is PSDImage, which provides document-level operations. Individual layers are represented by various layer classes in psd_tools.api.layers.

Key modules:

Example usage:

from psd_tools import PSDImage

# Open a PSD file
psd = PSDImage.open('document.psd')

# Access layers
for layer in psd:
    print(f"{layer.name}: {layer.kind}")

# Modify a layer
layer = psd[0]
layer.name = "New Name"
layer.opacity = 128

# Save changes
psd.save('modified.psd')

The API layer automatically reconstructs the layer tree from the flat list of layer records in the PSD file, establishing proper parent-child relationships for groups.

This module provides the high-level API for working with PSD files. It wraps the low-level psd_tools.psd structures with convenient Pythonic interfaces.

PSDImage

class psd_tools.api.psd_image.PSDImage(data: PSD)[source]

Photoshop PSD/PSB document.

The low-level data structure is accessible at PSDImage._record.

Example:

from psd_tools import PSDImage

psdimage = PSDImage.open('example.psd')
image = psdimage.composite()

for layer in psdimage:
    layer_image = layer.composite()
append(layer: Layer) → None

Add a layer to the end (top) of the group.

This operation rewrites the internal references of the layer. Adding the same layer will not create a duplicate.

Parameters:

layer – The layer to add.

Raises:

  • TypeError – If the provided object is not a Layer instance.

  • ValueError – If attempting to add a group to itself.

property background_color: float | tuple[float, ...] | None

Background color for the merged composite image. Writable.

When set, save() composites layers against an opaque backdrop of this color instead of a transparent one. This is useful for creating RGB-mode PSD files where transparent areas should appear as a specific color (e.g., white) in the merged composite.

Values are in [0.0, 1.0] range, matching the composite() color parameter:

  • RGB / Grayscale: 1.0 = white, 0.0 = black

  • CMYK: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) = white (no ink)

Use a scalar for uniform color or a tuple for per-channel values. Set to None for transparent backdrop (legacy behavior).

Documents created via new() have this set automatically from the color parameter.

Returns:

float, tuple[float, …], or None

Example:

psd = PSDImage.new('RGB', (640, 480), color=1.0)
psd.save('output.psd')  # White background, 3 channels (no alpha)
property bbox: tuple[int, int, int, int]

Minimal bounding box that contains all the visible layers.

Use viewbox to get viewport bounding box. When the psd is empty, bbox is equal to the canvas bounding box.

Returns:

(left, top, right, bottom) tuple.

property bottom: int

Bottom coordinate.

Returns:

int

property channels: int

Number of color channels.

Returns:

int

clear() → None

Clears the group.

This operation rewrites the internal references of the layers.

Returns:

None

property color_mode: ColorMode

Document color mode, such as ‘RGB’ or ‘GRAYSCALE’. See ColorMode.

Returns:

ColorMode

property compatibility_mode: CompatibilityMode

Set the compositing and layer organization compatibility mode. Writable.

This property checks whether the PSD file is compatible with specific authoring tools, such as Photoshop or CLIP Studio Paint. Different authoring tools may have different ways of handling layers, such as the use of clipping masks for groups. Default is Photoshop compatibility mode.

Returns:

CompatibilityMode

composite(viewport: tuple[int, int, int, int] | None = None, force: bool = False, color: float | tuple[float, ...] | ndarray | None = 1.0, alpha: float | ndarray = 0.0, layer_filter: Callable | None = None, ignore_preview: bool = False, apply_icc: bool = True) → Image[source]

Composite the PSD image.

Parameters:

  • viewport – Viewport bounding box specified by (x1, y1, x2, y2) tuple. Default is the viewbox of the PSD.

  • ignore_preview – Boolean flag to whether skip compositing when a pre-composited preview is available.

  • force – Boolean flag to force vector drawing.

  • color – Backdrop color specified by scalar or tuple of scalar. The color value should be in [0.0, 1.0]. For example, (1., 0., 0.) specifies red in RGB color mode.

  • alpha – Backdrop alpha in [0.0, 1.0].

  • layer_filter – Callable that takes a layer as argument and returns whether if the layer is composited. Default is is_visible().

Returns:

PIL.Image.

count(layer: Layer) → int

Counts the number of occurrences of a layer in the group.

Parameters:

layer – The layer to count.

create_group(layer_list: Iterable[Layer] | None = None, name: str = 'Group', opacity: int = 255, blend_mode: BlendMode = BlendMode.PASS_THROUGH, open_folder: bool = True) → Group[source]

Create a new group layer and add it to the PSDImage.

Example:

group = psdimage.create_group(name='New Group')
group.append(psdimage.create_pixel_layer(image, name='Layer in Group'))
Parameters:

  • layer_list – Optional list of layers to add to the group.

  • name – Name of the new group.

  • opacity – Opacity of the new layer (0-255).

  • blend_mode – Blend mode of the new layer, default is BlendMode.PASS_THROUGH.

  • open_folder – Whether the group is an open folder in the Photoshop UI.

Returns:

The created Group object.

create_pixel_layer(image: Image, name: str = 'Layer', top: int = 0, left: int = 0, compression: Compression = Compression.RLE, opacity: int = 255, blend_mode: BlendMode = BlendMode.NORMAL) → PixelLayer[source]

Create a new pixel layer and add it to the PSDImage.

Example:

psdimage = PSDImage.new("RGB", (640, 480))
layer = psdimage.create_pixel_layer(image, name='Layer 1')
Parameters:

  • name – Name of the new layer.

  • image – PIL Image object.

  • top – Top coordinate of the new layer.

  • left – Left coordinate of the new layer.

  • compression – Compression method for the layer image data.

  • opacity – Opacity of the new layer (0-255).

  • blend_mode – Blend mode of the new layer, default is BlendMode.NORMAL.

Returns:

The created PixelLayer object.

property depth: int

Pixel depth bits.

Returns:

int

descendants(include_clip: bool = True) → Iterator[Layer]

Return a generator to iterate over all descendant layers.

Parameters:

include_clip – Whether to include clipping layers. Default is True.

Example:

# Iterate over all layers
for layer in psd.descendants():
    print(layer)

# Iterate over all layers in reverse order
for layer in reversed(list(psd.descendants())):
    print(layer)
extend(layers: Iterable[Layer]) → None

Add a list of layers to the end (top) of the group.

This operation rewrites the internal references of the layers. Adding the same layer will not create a duplicate.

Parameters:

layers – The layers to add.

Raises:

  • TypeError – If the provided object is not a Layer instance.

  • ValueError – If attempting to add a group to itself.

find(name: str) → Layer | None

Returns the first layer found for the given layer name

Parameters:

name

findall(name: str) → Iterator[Layer]

Return a generator to iterate over all layers with the given name.

Parameters:

name

classmethod frompil(image: Image, compression: Compression = Compression.RLE, color: int | float | Sequence[int | float] | None = None) → Self[source]

Create a new layer-less PSD document from PIL Image.

Parameters:

  • image – PIL Image object.

  • compression – ImageData compression option. See Compression.

  • color – Background color for the compositing backdrop when saving. Accepts the same types as new() color. When set, save() will composite layers against an opaque backdrop of this color.

Returns:

A PSDImage object.

has_preview() → bool[source]

Returns if the document has real merged data. When True, topil() returns pre-composed data.

has_thumbnail() → bool[source]

True if the PSDImage has a thumbnail resource.

property height: int

Document height.

Returns:

int

property image_resources: ImageResources

Document image resources. ImageResources is a dict-like structure that keeps various document settings.

See psd_tools.constants.Resource for available keys.

Returns:

ImageResources

Example:

from psd_tools.constants import Resource
version_info = psd.image_resources.get_data(Resource.VERSION_INFO)
slices = psd.image_resources.get_data(Resource.SLICES)

Image resources contain an ICC profile. The following shows how to export a PNG file with embedded ICC profile:

from psd_tools.constants import Resource
icc_profile = psd.image_resources.get_data(Resource.ICC_PROFILE)
image = psd.compose(apply_icc=False)
image.save('output.png', icc_profile=icc_profile)
index(layer: Layer) → int

Returns the index of the specified layer in the group.

Parameters:

layer – The layer to find.

insert(index: int, layer: Layer) → None

Insert the given layer at the specified index.

This operation rewrites the internal references of the layer.

Parameters:

  • index – The index to insert the layer at.

  • layer – The layer to insert.

Raises:

  • TypeError – If the provided object is not a Layer instance.

  • ValueError – If attempting to add a group to itself.

is_group() → bool

Return True if this is a group.

is_updated() → bool[source]

Returns whether the layer tree has been updated.

Returns:

bool

is_visible() → bool

Returns visibility of the element.

property kind: str

Kind.

Returns:

‘psdimage’

property left: int

Left coordinate.

Returns:

0

property name: str

Element name.

Returns:

‘Root’

classmethod new(mode: str, size: tuple[int, int], color: int | float | Sequence[int | float] = 0, depth: Literal[8, 16, 32] = 8, **kwargs: Any) → Self[source]

Create a new PSD document.

Parameters:

  • mode – The color mode to use for the new image.

  • size – A tuple containing (width, height) in pixels.

  • color – What color to use for the image. Default is black. Accepts a single integer (0-255 for 8-bit) or float in the [0.0, 1.0] range, or a sequence of per-channel values using the same ranges (e.g., 3 values for "RGB", 4 for "CMYK"). Mixed int/float sequences are allowed. The color is used both as the initial image data fill and as the background_color compositing backdrop when saving.

  • depth – Bit depth (8, 16, or 32).

Returns:

A PSDImage object.

numpy(channel: Literal['color', 'shape', 'alpha', 'mask'] | None = None) → ndarray[source]

Get NumPy array of the layer.

Parameters:

channel – Which channel to return, can be ‘color’, ‘shape’, ‘alpha’, or ‘mask’. Default is ‘color+alpha’.

Returns:

numpy.ndarray

property offset: tuple[int, int]

(left, top) tuple.

Returns:

tuple

classmethod open(fp: BinaryIO | str | bytes | PathLike, **kwargs: Any) → Self[source]

Open a PSD document.

Parameters:

  • fp – filename or file-like object.

  • encoding – charset encoding of the pascal string within the file, default ‘macroman’. Some psd files need explicit encoding option.

Returns:

A PSDImage object.

property parent: None

Parent of this layer.

property pil_mode: str

PIL mode of the document.

pop(index: int = -1) → Layer

Removes the specified layer from the list and returns it.

This operation rewrites the internal references of the layer.

Parameters:

index – The index of the layer to remove. Default is -1 (the last layer).

Raises:

IndexError – If the index is out of range.

Returns:

The removed layer.

remove(layer: Layer) → Self

Removes the specified layer from the group.

This operation rewrites the internal references of the layer.

Parameters:

layer – The layer to remove.

Raises:

ValueError – If the layer is not found in the group.

Returns:

self

property right: int

Right coordinate.

Returns:

int

save(fp: BinaryIO | str | bytes | PathLike, mode: str = 'wb', **kwargs: Any) → None[source]

Save the PSD file. Updates the ImageData section if the layer structure has been updated.

Parameters:

  • fp – filename or file-like object.

  • encoding – charset encoding of the pascal string within the file, default ‘macroman’.

  • mode – file open mode, default ‘wb’.

property size: tuple[int, int]

(width, height) tuple.

Returns:

tuple

property tagged_blocks: TaggedBlocks | None

Document tagged blocks that is a dict-like container of settings.

See psd_tools.constants.Tag for available keys.

Returns:

TaggedBlocks or None.

Example:

from psd_tools.constants import Tag
patterns = psd.tagged_blocks.get_data(Tag.PATTERNS1)
thumbnail() → Image | None[source]

Returns a thumbnail image in PIL.Image. When the file does not contain an embedded thumbnail image, returns None.

property top: int

Top coordinate.

Returns:

0

topil(channel: int | ChannelID | None = None, apply_icc: bool = True) → Image | None[source]

Get PIL Image.

Parameters:

  • channel – Which channel to return; e.g., 0 for ‘R’ channel in RGB image. See ChannelID. When None, the method returns all the channels supported by PIL modes.

  • apply_icc – Whether to apply ICC profile conversion to sRGB.

Returns:

PIL.Image, or None if the composed image is not available.

property version: int

Document version. PSD file is 1, and PSB file is 2.

Returns:

int

property viewbox: tuple[int, int, int, int]

Return bounding box of the viewport.

Returns:

(left, top, right, bottom) tuple.

property visible: bool

Visibility.

Returns:

True

property width: int

Document width.

Returns:

int

For detailed layer types documentation, see psd_tools.api.layers.