photopea-embedded-editor

Photopea Embedded Editor Skill

Using photopea.js (yikuansun/PhotopeaAPI) in Websites & Apps

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When to Use This Skill

Use this skill for every task that involves:

• Embedding Photopea as an image editor inside a webpage or web app
• Controlling an embedded Photopea instance from your JavaScript code
• Automating image editing workflows from a host page (open files, run scripts, export results)
• Building an image editing feature into your product using Photopea as the engine
• Writing scripts to manipulate documents, layers, text, selections, filters, colors, and paths

Do NOT use raw postMessage wiring — always use photopea.js as the wrapper.

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Library: photopea.js

photopea.js is a Promises-based JavaScript wrapper around the Photopea Live Messaging API. Repository: https://github.com/yikuansun/PhotopeaAPI npm package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/photopea

Installation

CDN (no build step)

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/photopea@1.1.1/dist/photopea.min.js"></script>

Self-hosted

<script src="./photopea.min.js"></script>

npm (Webpack / Vite / Rollup)

npm install photopea

import Photopea from "photopea";

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Core API: The Photopea Class

Method	Description
Photopea.createEmbed(container)	Creates + injects the iframe, resolves when ready
new Photopea(window.parent)	Plugin mode: wrap the parent window
pea.runScript(script)	Run JS string inside Photopea; returns output array
pea.loadAsset(arrayBuffer)	Load binary file (image, font, brush, etc.)
pea.openFromURL(url, asSmart)	Open remote URL as new doc or smart object layer
pea.exportImage(type)	Export current doc; returns Blob ("png" or "jpg")

All methods return Promises — always await or .then().

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Step 1 — Embed

The container <div> must have a fixed width and height before calling createEmbed.

<div id="editor" style="width:1000px; height:650px;"></div>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/photopea@1.1.1/dist/photopea.min.js"></script>
<script>
  Photopea.createEmbed(document.getElementById("editor")).then(async (pea) => {
    // pea is ready
  });
</script>

React:

import { useEffect, useRef } from "react";
import Photopea from "photopea";

export default function Editor() {
  const containerRef = useRef(null);
  const peaRef       = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!containerRef.current || peaRef.current) return;
    Photopea.createEmbed(containerRef.current).then((pea) => {
      peaRef.current = pea;
    });
  }, []);

  return <div ref={containerRef} style={{ width: "100%", height: "650px" }} />;
}

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Step 2 — Opening Files

// Remote URL → new document
await pea.openFromURL("https://example.com/design.psd", false);

// Remote URL → smart object layer inside current document
await pea.openFromURL("https://example.com/overlay.png", true);

// Local file (user input → ArrayBuffer → loadAsset)
document.getElementById("fileInput").addEventListener("change", async (e) => {
  const buf = await e.target.files[0].arrayBuffer();
  await pea.loadAsset(buf);
});

// Base64 data URI via runScript
await pea.runScript(`app.open("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0...");`);

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Step 3 — Running Scripts

runScript sends a JS string, returns an array of app.echoToOE(...) values + "done" last.

const result = await pea.runScript(`app.echoToOE("hello");`);
// result → ["hello", "done"]

// Return structured data
const out = await pea.runScript(`
  app.echoToOE(JSON.stringify({
    width:  app.activeDocument.width,
    height: app.activeDocument.height,
    layers: app.activeDocument.layers.length
  }));
`);
const info = JSON.parse(out[0]);

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Step 4 — Exporting

// PNG Blob (via exportImage)
const blob = await pea.exportImage("png");
document.getElementById("preview").src = URL.createObjectURL(blob);

// JPEG Blob
const blob = await pea.exportImage("jpg");

// WebP / PSD / quality-controlled JPEG via saveToOE
const result = await pea.runScript(`app.activeDocument.saveToOE("webp:0.85");`);
const webpBlob = new Blob([result[0]], { type: "image/webp" });

const result = await pea.runScript(`app.activeDocument.saveToOE("psd:true");`);
const psdBlob  = new Blob([result[0]], { type: "application/octet-stream" });

// Trigger download
async function download(pea, filename = "export.png") {
  const blob = await pea.exportImage("png");
  const a    = Object.assign(document.createElement("a"), {
    href:     URL.createObjectURL(blob),
    download: filename
  });
  a.click();
}

Export format strings for saveToOE:

String	Format
"png"	PNG lossless
"jpg"	JPEG default
"jpg:0.8"	JPEG quality 0.0–1.0
"webp:0.7"	WebP quality 0.0–1.0
"psd"	Full PSD
"psd:true"	Minified PSD
"svg:true"	SVG

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