photoshopHelp

Color Mode Mishap

Dave writes,

I hope you can help me. Everytime I open a new file the foreground color is gray. What's wrong?

Check the color mode. My guess is your image is in Grayscale mode.

Choose Image > Mode > RGB

Now you can take advantage of all 24 million colors.

Pantone Huey Monitor Calibration

Last week I pontificated about the importance of color calibrating your monitor. Although the PS supplied utility Adobe Gamma is a good start this method is subject to the frailties of the human condition.

1. Color can be subjective.
2. Varying degrees of color blindness amongst the general poulation.
3. Monitor may appear different depending on the ambient light in the room.

The only real choice for maintaining consistent color is a colorimeter. Up until now, there were few reasonably-priced choices for the amateur or advanced amateur. Enter Huey by Pantone. For under $100 Huey calibrates your monitor as well as the room's ambient light with a hardware/software solution that's perfect for the digital novice who craves consistent color. Check it out.

Calibrate Your Monitors, Please

I get a lot of mail regarding monitor calibration. It's the first and most important step in the color management process that must be done on a regular basis. It's no easy job. Just ask CNN. The new set for Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room uses a grid of of monitors that are almost never calibrated. It's most apparent to me when they do a remote interview, when they split the frame into four different monitors. The monitor at the top right is always too dark and a bit green. The point is that with all the money and resources CNN has at it's fingertips, even they have a difficult time with calibration.

By the way CNN, I DO like the new set. BTW, I think I have a solution to the problem, if you'd care to listen. Contact me anytime.

Monitor Calibration

I get questons all the time regarding color management. The most common question- "I want the image on my monitor to look my prints, where do I start?"

Calibrate your monitor. It's quick and easy to do and Adobe has even provided the tools necessary to do it.

PC users will find the utility Adobe Gamma in the Control Panels.

Mac OSX users will find the utility Calibrate in the System Preferences.

Choose System Prefs > Display and click on the Color tab.

Both utilities provide step by step instructions for calibrating the first piece of hardware in the digital workflow, the monitor. Look for more on this important subject in futire Posts.

Pantone Predicament

Sarah writes,

How do you determine which number you have in the PANTONE color chart? There are so many libraries.  For example, I have the following color from the PANTONE solid coated library in Photoshop 7473 C. But, I can't match this up on the PANTONE color chart (outside of "eyeing" it). Is there some sort of cross-referencing technique for these libraries?

The Pantone color library collection has grown considerably in the past few versions. If you have been given a specific Pantone color you should stick with it. If you're interested in recreating the color you can break the color down into its individual parts.

Double click the Background color swatch to open the Color Picker.
The Color Picker opens.
Click the Color Libraries button.
The Color Libraries dialog box opens.
Select Pantone Solid Coated from the Book: dropdown menu.
Type the numbers 7433 to jump to the color. There are no text entry boxes, just type.
Click OK. The background color swatch is changed to Pantone 7433C.
Open a new document.
Choose File > New (any size will do)
The New dialog box appears.
Select Background Color from the Background Contents: dropdown.
Click OK.
A new doc opens with the new color in the background.

Now we'll analyze the color. 
Choose Window > Info
The Info palette opens.
Select the Eyedropper tool
Position the Eyedropper tool over the color background.
Look in the Info window, the color is broken down into three RGB values as well as four CMYK values.
Make a note of these numbers.
Now when you need to reproduce the color, just enter the values in the appropriate text entry box in the Color Picker.
I hope this helps.

The Color Management Police Dept.

Ann writes,

I have just upgraded from CS to CS2. Every time I open a photo edited in CS I get either an error message regarding missing embedded RGB profile or embedded grayscale profile. I have found information on these error messages but no real helpful suggestion as to which option to choose. Hope you can help me on this. Regards.

The Error message you're referring to is Photoshop's attempt to identify or place an embedded color profile in the file being opened. In a properly color-managed workflow every image that passes through should have the same color profile embedded in it. That put's all the images "on the same page", so to speak. It's just one page, however, in the volume known as color mangement. If the color on your system is OK for you, you can just turn off the warning.
Choose Edit > Color Settings
The Color Settings dialog box appears.
In the Color Management Policies section de-select the three "Ask when..." options.
Click OK.
That should do it.

Pantone Color Libraries

John asks,

I am creating a graphic in Photoshop and I've been asked to use a specific Pantone color. Where do I find them?

The Pantone color swatches you speak of can be found in the Color Picker.
In Photoshop CS2...
Click the Foreground color swatch in the tool box
The Color Picker opens.
Click the Color Libraries button.
The Color Picker becomes the Color Libraries.
Select a color library from the Book: dropdown menu
Select a color by clicking on the swatch in the window on the left.
Scroll through all the colors in the library by using the arrow keys.
When you've located the color, click OK.

In previous versions of Photoshop, the color libraries can be found by clicking the Custom button. This may be where your confusion lies. Custom is just too vague. By re-naming the button more accurately, Color Libraries, they have eliminated some confusion.

Swatch Size

Edna writes,

I am having trouble picking colors in the Swatch palette, mostly because the swatches are so small. Is there an easier way to pick these colors? I would just use the regular color picker but I like the swatches because I can put in custom colors that i use over and over again. Any ideas?

If you are using CS2, you could try increasing the size of the swatches.

Click the small arrow, in the upper right corner of the Swatches palette, to access the palette options.
Select Large Thumbnails or Large List from the menu that appears.
That will increase their size substantially and, hopefully, make your life easier.

Pink Problem Persists

MarkZ writes,

I am not sure what happened but every image I open up is drowned in hot pink, the new un-changeable background color.  I can't seem to change any of the settings to fix it.  When attempting to select a color the whole palette is hot pink.  Any ideas what happened?

No Mark, I've never seen this before.  Since this falls under the "Very Weird" category, I would suggest deleting the Preferences file and then restart Photoshop. Check out my Posts on Preference deletion and re-setting. Photoshop Exhibits Odd Behavior and Photoshop Preference prefs

 

Web Color Mode

Lindsay writes,

I was wondering how to remove an ICC profile from a CMYK jpeg?  It seems to be causing problems and inverts the colours of the photo when we upload it to our website. It needs to be CMYK though for printing purposes. Thanks!

First of all, never upload images to a web site in CMYK mode. It might be exactly what you need for the print job, however it's not what you need for the web. So first, we'll make a copy of your CMYK file and convert it to RGB mode, then we'll remove any unnecessary ICC profiles.

Open the CMYK image.
Choose Image > Duplicate...
The Duplicate dialog box appears.
Name the file and click OK.
A duplicate file is created.
You can close the original image now and concentrate on the duplicate.
Choose Image > Mode > RGB Color
The mode is converted to a web-friendly color mode.
Next, we'll remove any ICC profiles.
Choose Edit > Assign Profile
The Assign Profile dialog box appears.
Select the Don't Color Manage This Document option.
Click OK.

Your image will display on the web more accurately as an RGB file and it's file size will be smaller because the ICC profile has been removed.