MacOS – How to view locations of layers in PSD files without photoshop on osx

For rather raw data, try saving this as, e.g. psdtext.py

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys, re

input = sys.argv[1]

# This write_title function is just for vanity and easier manual searching
def write_title(num):
  filler = 97
  if num < 10:
    filler2 = filler - 25
  elif num < 100:
    filler2 = filler - 26
  else:
    filler2 = filler - 27
  print("\n" * 2)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("#" * 11 + " Text layer " + str(num) + " " + "#" * filler2)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("#" * filler)
  print("\n" * 2)  

def psd_texts(input):
  t = x = 0
  for line in open(input, 'r'):
    if re.search("^\s+/Text\s+.*", line):
      x = 1
      t += 1
      write_title(t)
      print(line.rstrip('\n'))
    elif x == 1:
      if "warp" in line:
        x = 0
      elif ">>" not in line and "<<" not in line:
        print(line.rstrip('\n')) 

if __name__ == "__main__":
  psd_texts(input)

Then make it runnable: $ chmod a+x psdtext.py

Save the output as a file*: $ ./psdtext.py my_file_with_text_layers.psd > textinfo.txt

Open in an editor: $ open textinfo.txt

For example: you can search for /Text in your editor to loop through the text content of different layers, or search for /FontSet to loop through the fonts (the first font listed is the one the layer uses, others are fallbacks)

I know the output is ugly, but hey, it contains all the info.

*) I wouldn't do just $ ./psdtext.py file.psd as it visually messes up the Terminal — try e.g. $ ./psdtext.py file.psd | less instead.

If your main goal is to improve the performance of Photoshop and Lightroom I would focus on these specific applications. Put Photoshop files and the Lightroom lib, Photoshop and Lightroom swap/temp/history files and the Photoshop & Lightroom apps themselves on the SSD.

Moving the system swap file to the SSD will only help if memory used by Photoshop or Lightroom is overflowed to the swap file. But if this is the case extra RAM would improve their performance a lot more.

Moving anything else then the files directly used by Photoshop & Lightroom might result in a faster overall system, but will likely only marginally help improve the Photoshop & Lightroom experience.