Why Photoshop can’t open the file
A .procreate file is a ZIP archive with Procreate’s own layout inside: a settings file that describes the layers, and each layer’s pixels stored as many small compressed tiles. Photoshop has no reader for that layout. Renaming the file to .psd doesn’t help, because the contents are still in Procreate’s format.
What Photoshop needs is a real PSD, a format it has read for decades.
Two ways to get a PSD
If the artist has the iPad
Ask them to open the artwork in Procreate and use Actions > Share > PSD. Procreate’s own PSD export keeps layers, names, opacity, visibility and blend modes. It is free and it is the most exact route.
If you only have the .procreate file
This is the usual situation for clients, art directors, print shops and studios: the file arrived by email or in a shared drive, and the person who made it is busy, away or unreachable. It also happens to artists whose iPad broke or was sold.
Drop the file on the toPSD converter. It reads the layers in your browser and writes a layered PSD without uploading anything. Then open the PSD in Photoshop with File > Open.
What the PSD contains
- Every layer with its Procreate name, in the same order.
- Groups, written as layer groups set to Pass Through.
- Clipping masks and layer masks.
- Hidden layers still hidden, and each layer’s opacity.
- All 26 Procreate blend modes, each set to the matching Photoshop mode. Procreate’s Add is called Linear Dodge (Add) in Photoshop.
- The canvas’s color profile, so a Display P3 canvas stays Display P3.
- The background color as its own bottom layer named Background, unless it was hidden in Procreate.
Two things change. Text layers arrive as pixel layers, so the text can’t be edited as text. Layers using the Hue or Saturation blend mode can look slightly different, because Photoshop calculates those two modes differently from Procreate.
Fixing common problems after opening
Colors look pale or different
Procreate canvases are often in the Display P3 color space. If a PSD has no profile, or Photoshop converts it to sRGB, colors can look washed out. toPSD embeds the original profile. Keep it when Photoshop asks. If Photoshop never asks and the colors still look off, open Edit > Color Settings and set the RGB policy to Preserve Embedded Profiles.
Dark edges around shapes
Some people see thin dark fringes around soft edges in PSDs exported from Procreate. In the Adobe community, the accepted fix is Layer > Matting > Remove Black Matte on each affected layer.
We checked PSDs written by toPSD for this: semi-transparent edge pixels keep the color of the stroke instead of turning dark, so a file converted here shouldn’t need that fix.
“The file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop”
A PSD can’t be larger than 2 GB or wider or taller than 30,000 pixels. Bigger files need the PSB (Large Document) format. toPSD switches to PSB on its own when a canvas is over either limit, and the download then ends in .psb.
More fixes are on the Procreate PSD problems page.
On Windows or on a Mac
Photoshop is the same on both, and so is the conversion. If you also want to view the file before converting, see opening a Procreate file on Windows or on a Mac.