File Size Calculator — Digital Image File Size

PSD files store each layer separately and use lossless compression. A 4000 x 5000 px file with 20 layers can easily reach 1 GB. Flatten unnecessary layers and purge clipboard history to reduce file size.

JPEG at medium quality gives the smallest files (about 8% of uncompressed) but loses detail. Among lossless formats, PNG is usually smaller than an uncompressed TIFF; a TIFF saved with LZW or ZIP compression can match PNG closely, and the winner depends on the image. For working files, PSD/Procreate with native compression offers a good size-to-quality balance.

16-bit files are exactly twice the size of 8-bit files at the same dimensions. 32-bit files are four times larger. Most digital art is done in 8-bit — use 16-bit only when you need smooth gradients or heavy editing.

A typical digital painting at 4000 x 5000 px, 8-bit RGB with 10 layers works out to roughly 250-450 MB on this conservative estimate (about 413 MB for a default PSD). If you create one painting per week, budget around 20-25 GB per year. Use external SSDs for archive storage.

Yes — CMYK has 4 channels versus RGB which has 3, making CMYK files 33% larger. Greyscale has only 1 channel and is a third the size of RGB. RGBA adds a transparency channel, matching CMYK in file size.