Saving each layer of a Photoshop image to separate files

Question

I have a PSD file with all icons in separate layers as vectors. I would like to save them in different sizes to use in iPhone, iPhone4 and iPad.

I tried Files > Scripts > Export Layers to Files

That took about 15 minutes to save each layer while the computer was overheating from the work. Tried with two different computers, one with CS4 and the other with CS5. Same result.

And that doesn't allow me to set sizes.

Seem like most icon packs, like pictos, glyphish and iconsweets are distributed in this way, in one PSD file.

Is some easy way to get them out of the PSD and into PNG files?

Answer 1

Here's an alternate, possibly faster method using an app called LayerCake:

• Give each icon layer a name ending in .png, just like a filename: someicon.png

• Save the PSD, drop it into LayerCake, which will spit out PNGs named the same thing as your layer names. So a layer named doghouse.png will output a PNG icon named doghouse.png

Note: You can name layer groups this way and they'll be exported in the same fashion. Also you can use .jpg in the layer/group name and a JPEG will be exported.

Answer 2

In order to create the separate sizes, I would duplicate the image and resize them exactly for each target size (64x64, 32x32...). Then run the script on each of those images.

Maybe your export layers script operation is choking because they are vector paths and maybe because of other things like drop shadow effects, etc. I would take a pass through all the layers, flattening them as much as possible into raster, with flattened effects, etc. before running the export layers script.

Answer 3

Highlight the layer in the layer palette, press Ctrl+A (PC) / Option-A (Mac) to select it then copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl+C / Option-C).

Create a new file (Ctrl+N / Option-N) and paste the layer to the new file (Ctrl+V / Option-V).

You can now save the layer to a separate file in whatever format you want.