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Most image work is a resize, a retouch, a format change or a quick composite. For that, paying for a desktop suite or uploading client files to a converter site is overkill.
At a glance
Files never leave your device
A colleague’s laptop, a borrowed machine, a Chromebook: open the tab, fix the file, send it back.
Inspect a PSD, pull out one layer, export a PNG for a slide deck — without a licence negotiation.
PSD to PNG, PNG to JPEG, resize before upload — the boring jobs that do not deserve a subscription.
Details
These are the parts that actually change the outcome, not marketing copy.
Layer-based compositing, masking, selections, basic retouching, text and shape layers, colour adjustments and export are all covered. If your job ends with "export a PNG for the site", the tool you are reading about will do it without a download.
Because everything runs locally in a WebAssembly build, there is no upload step: client artwork, medical images or unreleased product shots never leave the machine. That single property is why many teams prefer it to online converters.
It is not a print production tool. CMYK workflows, soft-proofing, 16-bit-per-channel editing and Pantone matching belong to desktop software with colour-managed output. It is also not a video editor, and its plug-in ecosystem is the browser, not a marketplace.
Very large documents are bounded by the memory a browser tab can use. A 20,000 px panorama with 200 layers belongs on a workstation.
A browser editor starts in seconds and costs nothing, but it cannot match a native application on raw throughput for huge files or on specialised colour pipelines. The sensible arrangement is to keep both: the browser for the fast jobs, the desktop suite for the one project a quarter that needs it.
The other real difference is data handling. With a local editor, the file never leaves your device, which removes an entire category of review from your procurement checklist.
Same job, different constraints — pick deliberately.
| PhotoPSD | Photoshop | Free desktop editors | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Install | None | ~4 GB | 200 MB – 1 GB |
| Price | Free | Subscription | Free |
| Layers, masks, selections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CMYK / print proofing | No | Yes | Partial |
| PSD read and write | Yes | Native | Yes |
| Files uploaded | Never | Never | Never |
| Works on any OS, no admin rights | Yes | No | No |
Free, with no account and no export watermark. The site is funded by advertising instead of subscriptions.
No. There is no CMYK mode or soft proofing; it is an RGB editor for screen output.
WebGPU-capable integrated graphics are enough for typical documents. Dedicated graphics help with very large canvases.
No desktop suite, no upload step: what a browser editor can do for a working designer or marketer, where it stops, and how to organise the handoffs around it.
A PSD is not a picture with layers glued on. It is a container with a header, colour blocks, layer records and a separate flattened composite — which explains most of its odd behaviour.
The same hex code can look different on two screens and in two apps. Here is where colour differences actually come from, and the three rules that prevent most of them.
No install, no sign-up, no watermark. First load is about 14 MB, then it comes from cache.
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