Pencil supports PSD as a static export format, so you can take a creative built in Pencil and continue working on it in Photoshop with its layer structure intact. This article walks through how to do it and what to expect from the file you receive.
Do I need the Pencil Photoshop plugin?
No. PSD export from Pencil works natively. Pencil produces the .psd file directly, and you can open it in Photoshop without installing anything extra. The plugin is only required for the other direction: bringing a Photoshop file into Pencil. If that is what you want to do, see How can I Integrate Figma and Photoshop with Pencil?, which walks through installing the plugin and saving Photoshop files as .pencil files that import as Pencil templates.
If your work crosses both directions — designing a hero in Photoshop, bringing it into Pencil for scaling, then exporting variants back to Photoshop for finishing — install the plugin once for the Photoshop-to-Pencil leg, and Pencil's native PSD export covers the return trip without any extra setup.
When is exporting to PSD useful?
PSD export is the right choice when you want to:
Hand a Pencil creative to a designer or external partner who works in Photoshop.
Apply a final pass of retouching, compositing, or production polish in Adobe.
Use Pencil for the heavy lifting (concept, scaling, copy variants) and Photoshop for the last-mile production craft.
If your goal is simply to share a flat preview of the creative, for review, social posting, or media upload, a PNG, JPG, or WEBP export will be lighter and faster. PSD is the right format when you need editable layers downstream.
How do I export a creative as a PSD?
PSD export is available from two places:
From inside the Pencil editor while the creative is open.
And from the work-item export action in your works list or grid view (without opening the creative).
Open or select your creative. Either open it in the editor, or find it in your work view and choose the export action.
Click Export.
Select PSD from the static export format options.
Choose your text-handling option. Either keep text as editable text in the exported PSD (preserving font, size, colour and position) or vectorise text on export. Vectorising locks the text into outlined shapes so it renders identically anywhere, but it is no longer editable as text in Photoshop.
Confirm and export. Pencil generates the PSD file and makes it available for download. Your export also appears in Export History for re-download later.
What does the exported PSD contain?
The exported PSD preserves the layer structure of the Pencil creative. Each editable layer in Pencil arrives in Photoshop as its own layer.
Text layers arrive as either raster or vectorised outlines, depending on the choice you made at export time.
Image layers arrive as raster layers, each with its own positioning. Any masks applied in Pencil are preserved as native Photoshop layer masks.
What happens when my creative has multiple formats?
If your creative has more than one format (for example a one-by-one hero plus a nine-by-sixteen vertical and a sixteen-by-nine horizontal of the same ad), Pencil exports each format as its own PSD file, all delivered together inside a single zipped folder. You receive one PSD per format, named per format inside the archive.
What are the limitations?
Static only. PSD export is for static creatives. Video creatives, whether Pencil-native or After Effects imports, cannot be exported as PSD.
File size. Very large or print-resolution creatives produce correspondingly large PSDs. If the file is intended for digital handoff, consider exporting at the smallest resolution that meets the downstream need.