Experimental · X-2Software: For Mac

Load Sheet

Comp it once. Load Sheet does the rest of the folder.

Build one layered Photoshop document by hand, with the layer order, blend modes, opacity, visibility, and adjustment layers exactly how you want them. Load Sheet rebuilds it for every render in a folder, one PSD per render, each stacked the same way with its own passes swapped in. It was built for render passes, and it works just as well on any files that share a name, like photo sets or scans.

Download for Mac

Free. macOS 13 or later, with Adobe Photoshop. First open needs one extra step (see Install below).

Load Sheet window showing a Photoshop template, its layers, and a preview of 32 renders ready to build

What it does

Comp it once

Build one layered PSD. Load Sheet rebuilds it for every render in the folder.

No naming rules

It reads your pass names from the template’s smart objects.

Missing passes?

That layer is dropped and the rest builds. The preview shows what’s missing first.

The same comp, thirty times

Compositing a render in Photoshop is the same sequence every time: place each pass as a layer, put them in order, set the blend modes, hide the layers used only for masking, add the adjustments on top, and save. Only the passes change. Doing it for thirty renders is an afternoon of mechanical work, and every repeat is a chance to put a layer in the wrong order or leave one visible that should be hidden. Load Sheet does that work from a template, so the comp is designed once and applied the same way every time.

How it works

01
Build the template
Comp one render by hand in Photoshop. Place each pass with File › Place Linked or Place Embedded so it becomes a smart object, then add your adjustment layers, blend modes, and opacity. Save it as a PSD. No special layer names, no settings file, no setup.
02
Drop it on Load Sheet
Load Sheet reads the PSD without opening Photoshop and shows its full layer stack: which layers get swapped for each render, which stay fixed, and every layer’s blend mode, opacity, and visibility.
03
Choose folders and build
Pick the folder of renders and where the finished PSDs should go. Load Sheet lists every render it found, anything missing, and what it will write. Nothing is saved until you click Build, then Photoshop works through the batch in the background.

No naming rules to learn

Photoshop remembers which file each smart object came from, so Load Sheet works out your naming from the template itself. If the template’s layers came from Front.denoiser.png, Front.Z_Depth.png, and Front.Glare.png, then Front is the render name and the endings are the passes. Every other file in the folder is grouped the same way.

It works with dots, underscores, hyphens, or spaces between the name and the pass, and with any file Photoshop can place: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, EXR, and more. Tested on real V‑Ray output, and on Corona and Redshift examples. Files that aren’t renders work the same way, as long as each group shares a name.

Naming	Template files	Render name
Dots	`Shot.denoiser.png`, `Shot.Z_Depth.png`	`Shot`
Underscores	`Kitchen_A_Beauty.png`, `Kitchen_A_Shadows.png`	`Kitchen_A`
One file plus extras	`shot010.exr`, `shot010.diffuse.exr`	`shot010`
One file per image	`photo.jpg`	`photo`

What it handles

Missing files

If a render is missing a pass, that layer is removed from its document and the rest builds normally. The preview shows what’s missing before you start.

Hidden layers stay hidden

Relinking can switch a hidden layer back on in Photoshop. Load Sheet puts every layer’s visibility back after each swap, so masking layers stay hidden.

Fixed layers

A watermark, logo, or texture that doesn’t follow the naming is left alone in every document. Right-click a smart object to keep it the same in every PSD.

Stray files

Unrelated images in the folder are ignored.

Subfolders

Optionally scans subfolders and mirrors them in the output, so renders with the same name don’t collide.

Linked or embedded

Each output keeps whichever the template used: linked smart objects are relinked, and embedded ones get new contents.

Pick up where you stopped

Skip PSDs that already exist, so a large batch can resume. Stop finishes the current document, then stops cleanly.

A log every time

A log in the output folder records every layer swapped or removed, and why anything failed. Your template is never saved over.

Install

Load Sheet isn’t notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks you to approve it once. It’s the same app either way.

01
Unzip and move
Download and unzip Load Sheet.zip, then move Load Sheet to your Applications folder.
02
Open Anyway, once
The first time you open it, macOS says it can’t verify Load Sheet. Click Done, then open System Settings › Privacy & Security, find the message about Load Sheet, and click Open Anyway. You only do this once per Mac.
03
Allow Photoshop
On your first build, macOS asks whether Load Sheet can control Photoshop. Click OK.

Good to know

One file per pass. Each pass needs to be its own file, told apart by its name. Workflows that put every pass in its own folder under the same filename, or pack them into one multi-layer EXR, aren’t supported.
Linked files keep their paths. A document built with linked smart objects points at the files where they are now. If they move, or you open the PSD on another machine, the links break. Place Embedded makes self-contained documents, at the cost of file size.
Keep cloud folders offline. Files that Dropbox or iCloud keep online only can stall Photoshop mid-build. Make the folders available offline first.

Requirements

macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon (an Intel build is included but hasn’t been tested yet)
Adobe Photoshop (tested with Photoshop 2026)
About a 740 KB download

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