Extract text from Photoshop HSL files (AHU)
To convert AHU HSL files to another format, you need Adobe Photoshop or other Settings software.
To convert other file formats to the "Photoshop Color Preset" file type, you need software like Adobe Photoshop or a similar tool.
A .AHU file is a proprietary settings file created by Adobe Photoshop. It stores custom Hue, Saturation, and Lightness (HSL) adjustment layer presets. Professional designers and photographers use these files to save specific color grading configurations and apply identical mathematical shifts across multiple images or projects.
The primary disadvantage of the .AHU format is its highly restricted, closed nature. It is heavily locked into the Adobe ecosystem and requires a costly monthly subscription to access. A common misconception is that .AHU files contain actual graphics; they do not. They are purely numerical instruction files. Because they lack image data, web browsers, default operating system viewers, and standard image applications cannot open them.
You cannot convert a .AHU file directly into a raster image like JPG or PNG. However, you may need to convert or extract the internal data into universally readable text formats like TXT, XML, or JSON. Extracting these values allows you to manually replicate the color adjustments in alternative, non-Adobe editing software such as GIMP or Affinity Photo.
Standard online image converters routinely fail when processing .AHU files because they mistake them for images rather than binary-encoded settings arrays. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded text structure, viewing or conversion to a readable data format may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your AHU file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert AHU file to INI, CFG, CONF, CONFIG, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, ENV, PROPERTIES or RC, you can use Adobe Photoshop or similar software from the "HSL Color Adjustment Presets" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert ZSHRC, CONF, RCFILE, GITCONFIG, RC, PLIST, BASHRC, CONFIG, PROFILE, INI, PREFS or CFG files to AHU, try Adobe Photoshop or another comparable tool in the "HSL Color Adjustment Presets" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our AHU converter.