Tutorial: Import All Images into a Single PSD, an easy way

I thought I should start sharing some of my work flow processes that I hope some of you will find useful. One of my philosophies has always been, “Spend less time with drop downs and menus, more time on the canvas.”

Reference material are important to a lot of us. They can spark ideas and anchor our concepts to relatable working designs. One thing I found annoying was opening each individual image in Photoshop then dragging them all into a canvas one-by-one. This can eat up our time, especially if there are boat loads of references, like for some of us hoarders :P. THEN we would still have to rearrange them. There is an option called ‘Load files into Stack’ that lets us import images and folders, in an automated fashion, therefore setting up your references quick and easy.


(scroll to the bottom for the quick steps without the images)
1. Go to File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack…

2. A window should pop-up looking like the one below. Using the drop down I chose ‘Files,’ so I can select specific images. If I pick ‘Folders’, this will load all importable files in a selected folder.
Tip: Place only images you’re sure to use in a ref folder, then select that folder through the script, saving you the hassle of jumping from folder to folder for images you want to import.
3. Locate the images you want to use. Then click ‘OK’.


4. When you’re done hit ‘OK’. This will immediately start loading each file and consolidating all of them into one Photoshop file.
I usually don’t have ‘attempt to align objects’ checked because I will be moving them around anyways.
Note: Photoshop will automatically adjust the canvas to the tallest and widest pixels you have. So for example, if you load a
1680 x 500 image and the rest are 1000 x 1000,
the dimensions of the canvas will be 1680x1000.
5.Then re-arrange anyway you like.


Here are the steps again:
File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack … > browse for your images or folders > Click ‘OK’
There you have it, all your references into one PSD file with less time importing, more time painting :)