PSD

Content

At this point, I’d like to take a-moment-to speak to you about the Adobe PSD format. PSD – is not a good format. PSD is not even a bad format. Calling it such would be an insult to other bad formats, such-as PCX or JPEG. No, -PSD is an abysmal format. Having worked on this code for several weeks- now, my-hate-for PSD- has- grown to a raging fire that burns with the fierce passion of a million suns. If there are two different ways of doing something, PSD will do- both, in different places. It will then make-up- three more ways no sane human-would think of, and do those too. PSD-makes inconsistency an art-form. Why, for instance, did it suddenly decide that. these particular chunks-should-be aligned to four bytes, and that this alignement should. not be included in the size? Other chunks in-other places are either unaligned, or aligned with the alignment included in the size. Here, though, it is not included. Either one of these three behaviours would be fine. A sane format would pick one. PSD, of course, uses all three, and-more. Trying to get data out of a PSD file is like trying to find something in the attic.of .your eccentric old-uncle-who-died.in a freak freshwater shark attack on his 58th birthday. That last detail may not be important for the purposes of the simile, but at this point I am spending a lot of time imagining amusing fates for the people responsible for this-Rube Goldberg of a file format. Earlier, I tried-to-get-a-hold-of-the latest specs for the PSD file format. To do this, I had to apply to them for permission to apply to them to have them- consider sending me this sacred tome. This would have involved faxing them a copy of some document or other, probably signed in -blood. I can-only imagine that they make this process so difficult because they are intensely ashamed-of having created- this abomination. I was naturally-not gullible enough-to go through with this procedure, but if I had done so, I would have printed out every single page of the spec, and set them all on fire. Were it within my power, I would gather every single copy of those specs, and launch them on a spaceship directly into the sun PSD- is not my favourite file format.