PSD Thumbnail (Photoshop) Generator for GNOME

Thumbnailer for the GNOME desktop environment that displays thumbnails for Adobe Photoshop (.psd) files in the file manager (Nautilus/Files).

Uses ImageMagick's convert command directly to render the first layer of the PSD file as thumbnail — no extra scripts needed.

Dependencies

• ImageMagick: To render the PSD thumbnail. Install with sudo apt install imagemagick.
• GNOME Desktop Environment: Required for thumbnailer integration (Nautilus/Files).

Installation

Make the scripts executable and run the installer:

chmod +x install.sh uninstall.sh
./install.sh

The script will:

1. Check that convert (ImageMagick) is installed.
2. Copy psd.thumbnailer to ~/.local/share/thumbnailers/.

After installation, clear the thumbnail cache and restart Nautilus:

rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail/*
nautilus -q

Uninstallation

./uninstall.sh

After uninstalling, clear the cache and restart Nautilus:

rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/*
nautilus -q

Manual Installation

If you prefer to install manually:

1. Create the thumbnailers directory (if it doesn't exist) and copy the configuration file:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/thumbnailers
cp psd.thumbnailer ~/.local/share/thumbnailers/

2. Clear the cache and restart Nautilus:

rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/fail/*
nautilus -q

How It Works

GNOME uses .thumbnailer files in ~/.local/share/thumbnailers/ (user-level) or /usr/share/thumbnailers/ (system-level) to generate thumbnails.

The psd.thumbnailer file specifies:

• MimeType: MIME types for PSD files (image/vnd.adobe.photoshop, image/psd, image/x-psd).
• TryExec: Checks if convert is available before using the thumbnailer.
• Exec: Calls convert directly to render the first layer ([0]) of the PSD file as a PNG thumbnail at the requested size. Parameters: %i = input file, %s = requested size, %o = output file.

Troubleshooting

• Thumbnails not showing:

  • Check that ImageMagick is installed: which convert
  • Verify the file exists: ls ~/.local/share/thumbnailers/psd.thumbnailer
  • Clear the cache: rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails/* and restart: nautilus -q
  • Check logs: journalctl --user -b | grep -i thumb

• Manual test:

convert "/path/to/file.psd[0]" -thumbnail 256x256 png:/tmp/test.png

License

MIT