The Gimp has support for RGB psd formats, and will fall over if the psd used CMYK (at least it used to).

If for some reason both of these fail, Photoshop has an OLE interface you could use to automate the conversion.

BTW, why would you expect there to be an open solution to a problem with a proprietary file format? I'm not surprised there are solutions, and I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't.

Image Magick claims read/write support for Adobe PSD format (search the page for PSD).

Yes. And I tried it. And it isn't complete, no matter what the page claims. It says so right up there in the initial post. And yes, the IM team is aware of this issue. It isn't gonna be fixed anytime soon, and I haven't the knowledge myself. So, done with that?

BTW, why would you expect there to be an open solution to a problem with a proprietary file format?

I do not "expect" anything, but if I did, it would be fair to assume there *would* be solutions. After all, open software solve tons on proprietry problems, without making that distinction. ImageMagick almost solves this problem, it has some bugs (that they are aware of) though, and the Gimp might solve it completely, if it was viable to set all those things up. Furtermore, lots and lots of proprietry programs can do this, and they haven't in many cases been licensing the format or anything. Given that money is not the one and ultimate force driving development, I would think that ther would be a good chance someone with an "open mind" would have accomplished this too.

And yes, we could deride into an endless discussion on how moving to an open format and/or program would solve all this, but I'm not gonna take that discussion.

To be able to work in Photoshop with the kind of graphics we do, working in PSD is an absolute must. And there are no competitors that can do what Photoshop can in the terms of both functions and usability. We *have* done serious evaluations of both Gimp and Blender, but in the end, if we want to produce, we need PS and Maya.

Don't bother to tell me I'm wrong on this account, here you have someone who have actually tried, with the intent to be able to switch, and I already do know that fans will not agreee with me, so please: this has been beaten to death a million times already.

All I asked was if there are some kind of image Library, preferably usable by Perl, that can handle reading PSD and output another format. I don't think it is a viable solution to install the whole of Gimp, plus a slew of extensions to it, and have it running in the background just to do this.

I'm ready to accept that there are no open solutions, instead. Of course, noone would be happier if you could surprise me.

Yes. And I tried it. And it isn't complete, no matter what the page claims. It says so right up there in the initial post. And yes, the IM team is aware of this issue. It isn't gonna be fixed anytime soon, and I haven't the knowledge myself. So, done with that?

I had no way of knowing what kind of rigour you used testing I::M or whether they know of the issues you had, so I thought I'd point out that they claimed psd support. If you have notified them and they know of the issues, great.

Regarding the rest of your rant: In your previous post, you stated

"I guess this is yet another area where there exists no open solutions."

Disregarding the presupposition in that sentence, I'd be surprised if there was an "open solution" that handles psd files better than (or even as well as) Photoshop. The reason is psd's proprietary file format. I've heard of problems with Ulead's and Paint Shop Pro's handling of psd files. In the same vein, OpenOffice has some difficulties reading/writing Word documents. Word has had troubles importing WordPerfect documents. It's the nature of the beast.

And yes, we could deride into an endless discussion on how moving to an open format and/or program would solve all this, but I'm not gonna take that discussion.

To be honest, I would never suggest using an open format just for the sake of using an open format. I'd suggest using the best tool for the job. If photoshop is the right tool, then use it. If not, find the right tool and use that. (We use Photoshop for all our imaging needs.)

All I asked was if there are some kind of image Library,

And I tried to help you find some possible solutions. I hunted down and pointed out I::M's claimed psd support. I pointed out an issue (which you asked about) I'd seen with Gimp before. And I pointed out Photoshop's OLE interface.