Participant

Question

Illustrator stopped reading spot colors (like Pantones) from PSD files.

Forum|Forum|10 hours ago
April 20, 2026
4 replies
23 views

The only workaround I've found is to save PSD as TIF and place it into illustrator file instead of PSD. It works, and I can see my spot colors again, but it is frustrating to have to reopen all PSD files and save them in different format. That happens since last update (30.3).

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@lazash So others can vote on your bug report:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/51218380-illustrator-in-30-3-version-stopped-reading-spot-c

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@lazash Tried it in the 2025 version and that worked as expected.

lazashAuthor

Participant

Yes, that issue is fresh. Today I had to make changes in one of my projects , which was prepared originally about two weeks ago. I had a grayscale PSD with added Pantone in that design and it worked normally back then, so I was a bit shocked that it wasn;t working today. Ive updated Illustrator to this version 8 days ago.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

I tried a duotone with a Pantone and that worked.

But I can replicate your issue with a greyscale and custom spot channel added.

I would recommend to report it on UserVoice:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

lazashAuthor

Participant

Reported, thank You :)

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Thanks, I just voted.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@lazash Are the color books installed in the Illustrator Presets?

lazashAuthor

Participant

Yes, they are installed, but its not the case. I should be able to create my own spot color in PSD and it should be read into Illustrator while placing the file. It works like that only with TIF files, PSD format isnt’t working as it should.

lazashAuthor

Participant

Additional info, which i have just discovered. That issue works (or doesn’t work normally) only with files that are in grayscale with added spot color. CMYK files with spots works fine as PSD.

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