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Participant
Feb 6, 2017 3:09 AM UTC
Answered

My project has turned black and white in Photoshop

i'm working in Ps, a painting project, and now my whole project has turned black and white. all of my layers. I'm fairly sure I pressed something accidentally but I don't know what or how to fix it. help??

milisaa93350435Correct answer
Participant
Feb 6, 2017 5:03 AM UTC

Ok. That helps. Now open your History Panel  Windows > History and go back a step at a time until you get your color back. The step below it might explain what happened.


I just figured it out. I had accidentally turned half of my layers invisible.... I don't know how I managed that by pressing one key but now i'm really embarrassed. thanks for your help though

44 replies

Horsepotato24
Participant
May 31, 2026 9:01 AM UTC

I had this issue, turns out where I was zooming in & out using CRTL - and  CTRL+ I was sometimes accidentally hitting SHIFT - or SHIFT + which changes the blending options. Check your layer on the right hand side and check its at normal (or whatever blending options you want). 
 

I was at my wits end, went to zoom out and hit SHIFT - by accident which fixed it. 

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Participant
Jan 5, 2025 6:29 PM UTC

worked

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Known Participant
Aug 12, 2024 2:57 PM UTC

In my case it was ctrl + Y (View > Proof Colors)

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Participating Frequently
May 22, 2024 8:52 PM UTC

Of all things, adobe has taken ctl 1 which for more than 20 years was the actual size command, so much that it became automatic with our fine motor skills, and now everytime you forget and try to see your image at actual size, surprise it turns your image to black and white and there appears to be no solution to correct except closing the program file without saving.  There is also no longer a macro for rotation.  I guess programmers are really getting hard up to justify their jobs. 

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gener7
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 22, 2024 11:14 PM UTC

View > 100% still has Cmd/Ctrl 1 assigned to it in Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. You can still assign that shortcut to it.

 

Ctrl 2 is composite RGB with 3, 4, 5 being assigned to the Red, Blue, and Green Channels.  You may want to select Keyboard Defaults to get everything back. Also consider on a PC, utilities sometimes trap those keys.

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Participant
Sep 22, 2022 1:53 PM UTC

@gener7 you are a life saver

 

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Participant
Feb 22, 2022 11:11 AM UTC

Okay so I had the same problem and ctrl2 didn't work. Indeed it was in this menu that i noticed the issue, my document idkhow turned greyscale, and by clicking on rgb, simply it reapplied color. It open a menu saying "would u flatten the image before ?" I personnaly applied, "no" and it did'nt change anything on my work. If that could help 🙂

 

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Participant
Mar 24, 2021 5:31 PM UTC

Comman 2 for MAC

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May 23, 2020 10:01 PM UTC

Thanks to both of you, Milisaa93350435 and Gener7. Even though it was a differnt problem than yours, it was Gener7's initail response that was exactly what I needed.  Accidently stroking key-commands you don't mean to can be a real bummer... Don't be embarresed, you saved my day! (: 

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Participant
Mar 18, 2020 4:12 PM UTC

It worked! Thanks!

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gener7
Community Expert
Community Expert
Feb 6, 2017 3:49 AM UTC

Press Cmd or Ctrl 2 and let me know if that worked.  Hold down the Ctrl key and press 2 for example.

Cmd = Mac

Ctrl   = PC

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Participant
Feb 6, 2017 4:02 AM UTC

didn't do anything

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gener7
Community Expert
Community Expert
Feb 6, 2017 4:22 AM UTC

Look at your document  tab at the top. What does it say in parenthesis? Mine would be (RGB/8)  for example.

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