Participant

Answered

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

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
April 20, 2026
8 replies
136 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).

Correct answer Harshika Verma

HI All,

Thank you for your patience. Yes, this is a known issue, and the team is currently working on it. Please stay tuned to this UserVoice and feel free to add your votes and comments to help increase visibility.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Thanks,

Harshika

<Marking it as correct only to highlight to the new users>

Harshika Verma

Correct answer

Community Manager

HI All,

Thank you for your patience. Yes, this is a known issue, and the team is currently working on it. Please stay tuned to this UserVoice and feel free to add your votes and comments to help increase visibility.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Thanks,

Harshika

<Marking it as correct only to highlight to the new users>

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

Our team is currently investigating the issue. I will update this thread as we have more information.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

I am sorry to hear about your experience with the latest release of Illustrator. I am currently checking this with the product team and will update this thread as I have more information.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Grayscale and Multi-channel files seem to be the problem.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Yes, but it was fine in 2025

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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