Can I open a KRA file without Krita?
Yes. Drop it on this page and you see the picture and the full layer tree in the browser, on Windows, Mac, Linux, a Chromebook or a phone. That covers the usual cases: someone sent you a .kra, you are on a computer without Krita, or you need the artwork in Photoshop.
Krita’s documentation on the .kra format says other applications mostly cannot open .kra files, and that each one holds a mergedimage.png with the image as it looked on the canvas. That merged image is what the preview shows, and what the PNG download gives you, exactly as Krita saved it.
What does the PSD keep from the Krita file?
Everything a paint layer holds carries over. The rest is listed on screen after you drop the file.
| In Krita | In the PSD |
|---|---|
| Paint layers | Pixel layers with the same name and order |
| Opacity and visibility | Kept per layer |
| Layer offset (x, y) | Kept: pixels land where they are on the canvas |
| Group layers | Groups (Pass Through); group opacity and group blend mode are not kept |
| Blend modes | The PSD mode with the same maths (table below) |
| Inherit Alpha | Clipping mask |
| Transparency mask | Layer mask; only the top one if a layer has several |
| Filter, transform and colorize masks | Left out |
| Fill layers | Kept as pixels when the file stores their pixels, otherwise left out |
| Filter layers, vector layers | Left out; the merged image still shows them |
| File and clone layers | Left out |
| Colour profile | Embedded in the PSD |
| Resolution | Same dpi as the Krita document |
| Canvas over 30,000 px on a side | Saved as PSB |
Which Krita blend modes have a Photoshop match?
Krita has more blend modes than PSD files can store. These map one to one: Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Darken, Lighten, Color Dodge, Color Burn, Linear Dodge and Addition (both become Linear Dodge (Add)), Linear Burn, Hard Light, Soft Light (Photoshop), Difference, Exclusion, Subtract, Divide, Hue, Saturation, Color, Luminosity, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix (Photoshop), Lighter Color and Darker Color.
Three cases are handled specially:
| Krita mode | In the PSD | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Erase | Layer kept but hidden | Shown as Normal it would paint over the picture instead of erasing |
| Luminosity/Shine (SAI) | Linear Dodge (Add) | The nearest PSD mode; partly transparent areas can look brighter |
| Any other Krita-only mode | Normal | PSD has no equivalent; the tool names each layer it changed |
Which files can’t it read in full?
- 16-bit, 32-bit float, CMYK, greyscale and Lab documents. The tool reads layers from 8-bit RGB documents, Krita’s default. For other colour spaces it gives you Krita’s merged image as one layer and says so, rather than guessing colours. In Krita, Image > Convert Image Color Space to 8-bit RGB and saving again makes the layers readable.
- Very old .kra files. Early Krita releases stored layers in an earlier format that the tool doesn’t read. It says so, and opening the file in a current Krita and saving it again fixes that.
- Animated layers. Animation frames are not read. An animated layer may come out empty in the PSD, and the tool says so when the file marks it; the PNG shows the frame Krita had open.
- OpenRaster (.ora) files. These are a different format. Krita, GIMP and MyPaint open them directly.
Should I save as PSD from Krita instead?
If you have Krita, File > Save As with the Photoshop format works and needs no other tool. Krita’s PSD page lists raster layers, blend modes, layer styles, vector shapes, text layers, groups and transparency masks among what it saves, so it keeps vector and text layers that this tool leaves out. This page is for when Krita isn’t installed where you are, or you only need to look inside a file someone sent.
What has this tool been tested with?
We tested it three ways, and nothing beyond that:
- Files written by our own Krita writer, the one behind the Procreate to Krita export. Every layer and mask is read back pixel for pixel, including layers that start off the 64 px tile grid, hidden layers, groups and masks, and every blend mode in the table maps back to the one it was written from.
- Six real .kra files saved by Krita 4.2.1 to 5.2.9, artwork shared under a CC BY 4.0 licence, from 832 × 577 to 2536 × 1792 px with 1 to 12 paint layers, groups, Inherit Alpha and Erase layers. Each one was converted and the PSD read back with ag-psd, an independent PSD reader, which found the same canvas size and the same layers in the same order. For the three files whose layers are all Normal, stacking the layers the tool decoded matched Krita’s own merged image to within 2 levels out of 255 per channel.
- Damaged and odd files. Cut-off downloads, broken layer data, a canvas too large for any PSD, a 1 × 1 canvas and layer names in emoji or Hebrew. The damaged ones stop with a message saying what is wrong instead of a half-made PSD.
We have not tested real Krita files with filter layers, vector layers, animation or 16-bit colour, so the handling of those comes from Krita’s format rather than from sample files.