Greyscale tiff won't colorize placed in Illustrator

[PrepressPro1]

I was working with a scan today, Greyscale and I was able to place it  into an Illustrator file then colorize it without issue. When I went  into the Photoshop file and duplicated the original locked scanned layer  and saved out the tiff would not colorize in Illustrator. Had to go  back to the raw scan and rework the file without duplicating the  original locked layer. This took extra time and was a bit troubling.  Does anyone know why the greyscale tiff with duplicated layer won't  colorize in Illustrator? Any insight to this would be greatly  appreciated. Oh one final detail, the colorization worked with spot colors but not CMYK builds. I forgot to mention that.

[wckdtall · Accepted solution]

I found another fix for this issue, rather than being limited to Pantone Swatches. I'm in CC 2015, and while adding a background and shutting off visibility did not work, converting any color to a spot color in the palette does work. If you need to change the color, you have to edit it in the swatch itself otherwise the color converts back to your process, and your image will appear grayscale.

[CROSS5E57]

WORKED!!! Long live to you!

[zecko]

Don't know if anyone was ever able to get to the right result, but I'll add my 2 cents. So I been fighting with this thing all morning and my TIFF's that were created in PS would not change color fro anything when I drag or opened in AI. but I did notice a random jpeg I'd open in PS, converted it to grayscale and saved as a TIFF was able to be recolored in AI. So I did just that with my art. The TIFF that I needed to use I saved as a JPEG, reopened it in PS and converted it to grayscale and saved as a TIFF. AND BAM! Finally! I was able to play with the colors in AI. It's an annoying extra step, but it did work. I hope you can find this helpful.

1: Save the art as a jepg in PS

2: Reopen in PS and convert to greyscale

3: Save as TIFF.

4: Enjoy in AI with some colors. 😃

[Mike_Gondek]

Please use .psd format, and avoid .tif . This is an old post and you can now colorize .psd. Just has to be a spot color and  grayscale .psd.

PSD is much more reliable, efficient & technically sound that TIF.

[wckdtall]

Any raster image embedded or linked can be colored using a grayscale color mode in Illustrator. The spot color requirement only applies to images that have transparency, but is definitely the way to go with complex textures. While PSDs are great, Tifs are still a viable format, as they support photoshop features and are widely compatible with more programs than the Adobe suite. Tifs also offer an unmatched level of compression than PSDs.

[Mike_Gondek]

For lossy/stonger compression with layers etc, try Photoshop .pdf format.  While tiff still works most of the time, it is plagued with almost as many issues as .eps format being unsupported or updated for over 20 years.

Curious about why you like tif. We get some accounts that ask for it, but will not say why. and then later takes us extra time to fix the problems with this format. Last I heard there maybe some  > 20 yr old sandblast engraving machines that only take tif, but they were using Mac OS9, or Win 95.

Not looking for an argument, just understanding, as .tif is a daily problem for me.

[wckdtall]

100% understand you’re not looking for an argument, I too am an advocate of knowledge as well. I used to supply AI files in eps, but saw a big file size gain compared to PDF. PDF in Illustrator is not backwards compatible to minor versioning. I supply now in AI, as it is backwards compatible as of CC, where it will expand any new features in the least destructive way. Adobe Reader CC will open AI even in free versions. On to Photoshop, Photoshop PDF is a lesser known feature these days and the extension is not a great indicator of different format especially since PS and AI don’t alert you, they just try and open. Separate issue but similar, I still have a problem with Adobe warning me that a file is beyond 2 gigs and PSD capabilities, but will succeed as a .psb, just convert it! Don’t tell me as you’ve already deleted the network file and save a new one! If I recall, Tif will opt out at 4 GB, which is a limitation similar to FAT32, but the lossless zip compression it offers is immeasurable to any format PS offers whilst maintaining PS usability. You can weigh your options with Tif, merged layers that have a large amount of transparency in between will be larger than if they are separated. I’ve only explored the lossless methods of compression with PS, but none have matched Zip. There is a longer save time with Zip tifs, but that correlates to your end user having a quicker download time, yet open time is a bit slower. Plus, average users can open files in other programs. Again, my stance is more cross compatibility, not necessarily for the legacy systems you’re mentioning, but in my world I’ve got to promote forward thinking and formats that will be widely usable. Funniest common question to date with Tif? ”Do you have a layered version of this file?” Always happy to hear your encounters with limitations of a format. If you’re asking on behalf of someone from Silicon Valley? Middle out compression for the win!