Photoshop (.psd, .psb) and Illustrator (.ai, .ait) files land on a board as cards that show the real artwork, with a button that opens the file in Photoshop or Illustrator. In the desktop app you can also copy straight out of either app and paste onto the board: a Photoshop layer arrives with its transparency and its name, and an Illustrator selection arrives as a PDF.
Bring Adobe files onto a board
Photoshop and Illustrator files come in every way other files do:
- Drag them from Finder or Explorer onto the canvas.
- Upload them from the Media Library with Upload Media ▸ Choose Files.
- Import a folder or unzip an archive that contains them — see Import Folders and Zip.
The file is copied into the board’s folder, and the card points at that copy.
What the card shows
Both kinds use the same project-card layout as After Effects, Blender and DaVinci Resolve files:
- The artwork fills the top of the card, with a small Photoshop or Illustrator tag.
- The title and a facts line — the artwork’s dimensions when they are known, and the file size.
- Edit in Photoshop or Edit in Illustrator, plus Reveal in file manager, which shows the file in Finder or Explorer (desktop app).
Where the picture comes from:
| File | Preview |
|---|---|
| .psd | The full composite image Photoshop saves inside the file, read when the file is imported. |
| .psb, or a .psd whose composite can’t be read | The smaller preview embedded in the file. |
| .ai, .ait | The operating system’s own preview — Quick Look on macOS, the Explorer thumbnail on Windows — made the first time the card is shown in the desktop app, then kept in the board folder. |
Older Illustrator files saved in the legacy PostScript format have no preview the system can draw. Their card shows the Illustrator mark instead of the artwork, and everything else works the same.
Edit in Photoshop or Illustrator
In the desktop app, Edit in Photoshop and Edit in Illustrator open the board’s copy of the file in the Adobe app itself. The app looks for the installed Adobe app directly — the newest version in Applications on macOS, or under Program Files on Windows — because the system’s default app for these files is often just a viewer. If the Adobe app isn’t installed, the file opens in whatever app your system uses for it.
Because the button opens the file inside the board folder, saving in Photoshop or Illustrator saves the board’s copy.
In the web version there is no app to launch, so the button opens the file in a new browser tab instead.
Paste from Photoshop
Copy a layer in Photoshop, switch to the board and press ⌘V / Ctrl+V. If Photoshop is still running, the app asks it to export the active layer as a PNG with straight alpha — its real transparency — trimmed to the layer’s content, and names the card after the layer. The card lands in the middle of your view.
The export is used only when it is exactly the same pixel size as the pixels you copied. If another layer is active, or you copied only part of a layer, the sizes differ and the app pastes the copied pixels as a plain PNG instead — so a paste always means “what I copied”.
- Photoshop must already be open. The app never starts Photoshop for a paste; if it isn’t running, the clipboard picture is pasted as it is.
- macOS: the first paste makes macOS ask whether GreenLight Dash may control Photoshop. Allow it to get exact transparency and layer names. If you decline, pastes keep working with the clipboard picture; you can change the answer later under System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Automation.
- Windows: the app asks the running Photoshop for the same export. This is what keeps transparency on Windows, where Photoshop’s own clipboard copy is a flat picture with no alpha. If Photoshop doesn’t answer, the flat clipboard picture is pasted instead.
Paste from Photoshop needs the desktop app on macOS or Windows. In the web version, and on Linux, a copy from Photoshop pastes as the clipboard picture.
Paste from Illustrator
On macOS, Illustrator puts a PDF of your selection on the clipboard. Copy the artwork in Illustrator, switch to the board and press ⌘V — it lands as a PDF card.
Turn the Photoshop export off
If you would rather always paste exactly what is on the clipboard, start the app with the environment variable GL_ADOBE_BRIDGE set to 0. Photoshop pastes then use the clipboard picture and the app never talks to Photoshop. Illustrator pastes and the Edit in buttons are unaffected.
Where to go next
- Adding Media Elements — the project cards for After Effects, Blender and DaVinci Resolve files.
- Uploading Local Files — every other way to paste and upload, and the full format list.
- Import Folders and Zip — bring a whole design folder in at once.
- Media Manager Panel — find the files again in the board’s media.
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