PSD to DDS Converter

What happens when you convert PSD to DDS

• ImageMagick, the open-source image toolkit, reads the flattened copy of the whole picture that Photoshop saves inside every PSD, the image you see with all layers visible, on our conversion server, and saves it as a DDS texture, block compressed as DXT5 when the image has transparency and as DXT1 when it does not.
• Layers are not exported one by one: the result is the finished picture. A PSD saved with Maximize Compatibility turned off in Photoshop may have no usable flattened copy, and then comes out blank; resave it with that option on.
• Transparent areas stay transparent.
• DDS compression works on blocks of 4 by 4 pixels and is lossy, as in every game texture: sharp edges and smooth gradients pick up slight blockiness up close.
• Mipmaps, the smaller copies a game uses for distant surfaces, are added when both sides are powers of two, such as 512 by 512 or 1024 by 2048. A texture of any other size gets none, and most game engines expect power-of-two sizes anyway.
• This conversion runs on our server: the file is uploaded, converted, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result has been sent back to you. Nothing is kept. Files up to 25 MB are accepted.

How to convert PSD to DDS online

1. Press "Choose PSD files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. Files up to 25 MB each can be converted.
2. There are no settings to choose: the converter keeps everything the target format can hold.
3. Press "Convert to DDS". The file is uploaded to our conversion server, converted in a few seconds, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result is sent back.
4. Save each DDS with its download button. Our server has already deleted both your PSD and the DDS by then.

Why convert PSD to DDS?

PSD files usually come from Photoshop artwork, photo retouching, mock-ups and design files. People convert them to DDS because DDS is the texture format games and 3D engines load straight onto the graphics card, and the one game mods have to use.

In short, PSD is good at what it was made for, and DDS is the more practical choice when the file has to open, upload or print somewhere else. PSD does not open in browsers; Photoshop opens it, and GIMP, Affinity Photo and Photopea read most PSD files, while DDS does not open in browsers; Paint.NET, GIMP and game modding tools open it, and Photoshop with NVIDIA's plug-in.

How to convert PSD to DDS on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

On Windows

Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your PSD files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each DDS is saved to your Downloads folder.

On a Mac

Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the PSD files from Finder onto the drop zone and the DDS files land in Downloads.

On iPhone and iPad

Open the page in Safari and tap Choose PSD files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted DDS appears in Files, in the Downloads folder.

On Android

Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose PSD files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The DDS is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.

Best settings for PSD to DDS

There are no settings: the texture keeps the image's size, compressed as DXT5 when it has transparency and DXT1 when it does not.

If the game or engine needs a power-of-two size, such as 1024 by 1024, resize the image before converting, so the texture also gets mipmaps.

PSD vs DDS: the differences

About PSD and DDS files

What is a PSD file?

A PSD keeps every layer, mask, adjustment and text layer separately so the work can be edited later, and stores a flattened copy of the whole picture beside them. A PSD is limited to 30,000 pixels a side and 2 GB; larger work is saved as PSB.

What is a DDS file?

DDS stores a texture the way a graphics card uses it: compressed in blocks of 4 by 4 pixels that the GPU decodes on the fly, often with mipmaps, smaller copies for distant surfaces. That is why game mods are full of DDS files, and why ordinary image viewers cannot open them.

PSD to DDS not working? Common problems

• "Files up to 25 MB can be converted." Server conversions have a size limit. Save the image at a smaller size first.
• "The conversion took too long and was stopped." Very long or complex files can pass the 90 second limit. Split the file and convert the parts.
• "This file is not really in PSD format." The converter checks every file before it runs anything, so a file of another format renamed to .psd is refused. Choose the page for its real format.

Convert PSD to DDS from the command line

ImageMagick does the same on your own computer:

magick input.psd[0] output.dds

Converting on your own computer keeps the file entirely local, which is worth it for very large or very sensitive documents. For everything else, the converter on this page does it without installing anything.