AI switching to greyscale

[MirkoB82PQE]

Hi Everybody,

sometimes AI switches itself from RGB or CYMK to Greyscale without any notice and without having me to decide.

when it does like that, i prevents me to switch back to color modes (RGB or CYMK): i click on the color profile, but nothing happens.

is there any way to avoid this? is that a bug?

Maybe a patch would be necessary.

[Doug A Roberts]

are you talking about the Document Colour Mode, an assigned Colour Profile, or something else?

[Ray Yorkshire]

Using Windows, I've had the selection change to greyscale occasional, no apparent reason, just whenever Illustrator feels like it.

I go Window > Colour and in the fly out menu change it back.

Same problem here

http://www.bittbox.com/illustrator/illustrator-101-the-annoying-grayscale-color-problem

[MirkoB82PQE]

yes, i do the same. but sometimes it doesn't switch: nothing happens, simply.

it's really annoying.

[John Mensinger]

There may be a a bug of sorts in play here, but I wouldn't say it's a case of "illustrator mind-of-its-own."

Independently of Document Color Mode, color mode can be object-specific. In other words, it's possible to have an object with CMYK color(s) applied, one with RGB color(s) applied, and the third with Grayscale value(s) applied, all living side-by-side on an Illustrator artboard. When there is a selection active, the Color panel may display one color mode or another . . . conditionally as follows, according to my findings:

RGB/CMYK

• In Document Color Mode: CMYK, an object pasted from an RGB Color Mode document forces the color panel to RGB. Having been pasted into a CMYK document, the object's color mode has been converted to CMYK, but the Color Panel will continue to display its original RGB values until some other activity forces another Color Panel mode change. After that, selecting the pasted object displays its converted CMYK values.
• The above is also true of a CMYK-originated object pasted into an RGB document; just the other way around.
• If there is a bug, here it is: In either case above, the Color Panel will continue along in the color mode forced by the pasted object, even when another object, of the other color mode, is selected. In other words, for example, if you paste an RGB object into a CMYK document, the Color Panel will display the pasted object's RGB values, and get stuck in RGB, even if you then select a pre-existing CMYK-assigned object.

GRAYSCALE

• This is the wildcard, in that its behavior is faultless (and the way all modes should work), in either Document Color Mode as far as I can tell. Grayscale objects can live in either Document Color Mode (there is no Grayscale Document Color Mode), and the Color Panel responds as you'd want, changing to grayscale when one is selected, and back to the Document Color Mode when a non-grayscale object is subsequently selected.

[Anna Lander]

Generally, AI does this when you work with gradients using White-to-Black default gradient. These colors are set in Grayscale mode. You can, for example, take from Swatches other colors for gradient stops and then edit them as you wish in the proper mode.