[Theodores]

Is this problem being solved the best way? Is it not possible to build a plugin for Photoshop that exports an interim format, something where there are things like layers with text elements in something CSS friendly so that those people with familiarity with things like imagemagick can automate what they need doing in some sensible way? This need be a one-way export so those of us that have to do something with other people's Photoshop files can just get on with it. The import of the interim format (to Photoshop) need not be necessary for many workflows.

[detaro]

That still requires you to have Photoshop to do the initial export, at least until your new export format is an accepted standard (Photoshop files are de-facto exchange format in many areas, since everybody uses Adobe products anyways) If you already know that your workflow will leave Photoshop at some point and you control it fully I agree, that would be a solution (and might already be possible, depending on your exact needs)