These are a list of common practices we’ve gathered for delivering design materials to improve the clarity of a PSD’s when transferred from design to production.

External file organisation

• Consolidate your PSD files. Only use a minimal number of PSDs.
• Name files appropriately.
  For example: “ClientName_desktop.psd”, “ClientName_tablet.psd” and “ClientName_mobile.psd”.
  Not: “newest.psd”, “LATEST.psd” or “Final_v2.psd”.
• Store all assets relative to PSD. Keep stock-photos/icons/fonts in a folder close to the PSD, preferably in a folder labeled “assets”.
• Make a separate template for all global UI elements. Making a PSD strictly for user interface treatments (buttons, forms, etc.) with all different states (:hover, :active, errors) helps during the development phase.
• Make a separate template or style guide for setting typography (font families, sizes, colours, etc.). This helps making sure that the typography stays consisted throughout the project.

Internal file organisation

• Name layers appropriately.
• Organise layers in folders.
• Delete unnecessary layers.
• Use layer comps and smart objects.

Setting typography

• Set font size in pixels, not points.
• Use whole pixel values. Refrain from resizing text with the Free Transform tool and give it a whole number value instead.
• Set type colour with colour picker, not using opacity or fill.
• Don’t rasterize or flatten type.

Image elements

• Keep logos, icons, buttons and other graphical elements as vector smart objects. This is required for creating assets for high pixel ratio displays (Retina displays) or if resizing is needed.