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Mica M.
Inspiring
February 3, 2022

P: Paint Bucket paints with wrong color

  • February 3, 2022
  • 18 replies
  • 9225 views

I have encountered many problems with Photoshop over the last years, this meant I often had to 'Alt-Tab' my way to a different application so Photoshop could release its grip and free the fields. Over the last few months I often have to 'Alt-Tab' twice and sometimes more often. 

I noticed that if I fill something out in a field, a colour value for instance, this field does not lose the focus. But it's even worse than that. I found out today that even using the 'Paint Bucket' tool is now having a problem.

Below are some screenshots.

 

'01-mix-70percent-grey'

I mix 70% grey so I can fill a layer with that colour using an sRGB document, as usual. By the way: I also tried this with a greyscale file but the result is the same.

I use the 'Paint Bucket' tool for this, it's using 100% opacity and of course the 'Normal' blend mode, no strange settings.

The layer I want to fill is empty and also in 'Normal' blend mode.

 

'02-fill-paintbucket'

In this step I use the paintbucket to fill the layer with 70% grey.

 

'03-result-83-grey'

This step demonstrates how the result instead is 83 percent grey. 

In an earlier step this number kept climbing, as if Photoshop was adding to the value.

 

'04-use-pencil-is-70-percent'

To unblock the paintbucket I thought I would try the 'Pencil' tool.

I mixed 70% grey and used it. This worked.

 

'05-paintbucket-again-wrong'

After that I wanted to use the paint bucket again. But this didn't work, it added the wrong colour again.

 

'06-becomes-82-percent'

That wrong colour I mentioned in the precious step turned out as 82% grey instead.

 

'07-no-other-tool'

After that, Photoshop again didn't let me select any other tool. It completely blocked, as happens so, so often, and no shortcut such as 'm', 'n', 'i' and not even hard-selecting tools in the 'Tools' panel helps. Photoshop then keeps focusing on some field and sticks to the wrong colours.

 

This is all getting out of control. I have been using it since the nineties. I was used to 'Alt-Tabbing' my way out of it and even creating snapshots was more of a pain because Photoshop usually decides to immediately snap back into focus, removing the screen shot app from focus so I have to go back to that to use its content.

But having to 'Alt-Tab' so often and now having to unlock whatever field is stubbornly keeping things inactive, AND Photoshop changing the colour values because apparently, some field is adding to the values I fill out, is getting ridiculous. I am not often so frustrated but how can I teach when Photoshop is not reliably using the colours I specify?

Again: I did this in a greyscale file as well with the same results. If I shut down Photoshop the same happens, freezing, locking, and using wrong values. If I use a saved swatch things are okay. But Photoshop freaks whenever I specify ink values and this simply should not be the case.

I think there is more going on at a deeper level and it's all to do with focus and fields, and keeping things in cache, maybe. Whatever it is; it's not making work easy and takes up too much time. To have to switch to the 'Pencil' tool to use the colour I mix because the 'Paint Bucket' tool refuses to use it is silly. 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

18 replies

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
June 27, 2022

Thank you Mohit! 😊

It was a mind blowing experience I must say, it might be cool to keep that old Photoshop version for sentimetal reasons but it's great to see this fixed. I will tell my students who wait in anticipation.

Mohit Goyal
Community Manager
Community Manager
June 14, 2022

Hi all,

 

We're happy to announce the release of Photoshop 23.4. This update includes the fix for this issue. To see the list of all fixed issues, click here

 

To update Photoshop to 23.4, click "Update" in the Creative Cloud desktop app next to Photoshop. More detailed instructions for updating

 

Let us know if the update resolves the problem for those affected, and share your feedback.

 

Thanks,

Mohit

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 23, 2022

Hi Jeffrey.

 

Little update that might shed light.

 

'Color' panel > 'Grayscale' slider > 50% K

Paintbucket to fill, then switch to Pencil or Brush to paint.
Sampling shows paint bucket painted K64 and Pencil K50.
Checked in RGB sliders: Paint bucket's K64 = RGB 3x 160, Pencil's K50 = RGB 3x128.

 

'Color' panel > 'CMYK' sliders > C0%, M0%, Y0%, K50%
Paint bucket to fill, then switch to Pencil to paint.
This renders as R157, G157, B156 and 51 K in the 'Grayscale' slider.
In this case both the paint bucket and brush/pencil result in the same colour.

 

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 18, 2022

I dug into it a bit more; using the 'Fill' command with '50% gray' results in R 128, 128, 128 (128x3) which is to be expected.

The 'Grayscale' slider at 50% K lets the paintbucket use R 160, G 160, B 160 (160x3) and the pencil/brush 128x3.

The 'Line' tool in pixels mode outputs 50% K on the 'Grayscale' slider as 160,x3 as well.

One tool doing this and the other that is confusing.

 

Additionally (and probably related):

I think most users would expect 50% K to be the same as neutral RGB grey.

When I explain 128x3 is halfway each RGB slider they all understand and it's easy to combine this with the levels, curves, histogram, et cetera.

The K slider is part of CMYK but maybe a better grayscale slider, based on RGB values (with 255 positions instead of using 0-100%) would be best to make sure that when one grabs a tool, the output would always consistently be the same as 128x3? After all, a pure greyscale file has 256 shades of grey which would be great for consistency.

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 18, 2022

Thank you Jeffrey, I am very curious.

The weirdest is the inconsistency; one tool uses (for instance) 50%, the other 64%, without changing the colour in between. I look forward to the response 😊

Legend
February 17, 2022

Engineers are looking into the issue. I'll update the thread when there is a fix/update.

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 15, 2022

I just tested this with someone on Mac.

Paintbucket tool > 10% grey > results in 15% grey. The other values are also changed the same way as with me.

 

Focus problem > same on Mac

Switching to the 'Pencil' tool is a pain, just as it is with me.

After filling out a value in the field for the 'K' slider they had to hit 'Enter' to activate the 10% grey.
But then things were 'blocked' and they too had to hit 'Enter' again.
And after that, just like on my own machine, this resulted in the 'Opacity' field getting the focus in the 'Options' panel which made it impossible to switch tools. Hitting 'Enter' a third time did not help, they had to select the tool in the 'Tools' panel.

 

Clearly this is not just a Windows problem but a Mac problem as well.

Exactly the same 'solution' works: switching to the 'Pencil' tool, then using the 10% grey, then switching to the paintbucket tool.

This does not help with saved swatches though, and I find it a big problem that using the company colours is not reliable since I need to use them for so many elements.

 

So for anyone experiencing the same problem the 'solution' for now is to use the HSL, RGB, or Lab sliders.
I think something may be going on with the conversion and look forward to the results from the engineer.

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 13, 2022

I decided to do more tests and uploaded a new video (I found out one of the videos only captured only the document window, this one captured the full screen).

 

Workflow 1

I specify a value with the greyscale or CMYK sliders and use the 'Paintbucket' tool. This then turns out to be the wrong colour.

 

Workflow 2

I choose a swatch in the 'Swatches' panel and check the values in the 'Color' panel. i use the paintbucket. When I sample it, it is the wrong colour.

 

Workflow 3

I specify a greyscale value. I use the paintbucket. I switch to a different tool such as the 'Pencil' or 'Paintbrush'. This tool paints in the colour I wanted to use and is clearly different than the paintbucket result.

 

Workflow 4 (even weirder but intriguing)

I select a saved swatch. I fill the layer with the paintbucket. I switch to, say, the pencil tool. I paint: there is no difference in colour. I sample: both the paintbucket and the pencil use the wrong colour.

 

If I use Lab, HSB, or RGB sliders the error does not occur. I wonder if something is going on with the conversion from RGB to greyscale and CMYK.

 

The odd thing is that after using the specified colour, its values stay correct in the 'Color' panel. When I sample them they are clearly wrong.

 

The difference when using greyscale is consistent and always has the same deviation (rounded values follow). 0% always stays 0%.

10% is changed into 15 = 1.5

20 becomes 28 = 1.4

30 becomes 41 = 1.36

40 becomes 53 = 1.32

50 becomes 64 = 1.28

60 becomes 74 = 1.23

70 becomes 82 = 1.17

80 becomes 89 = 1.11

90 becomes 95 = 1.05, et cetera.

 

I haven't calculated this for CMYK yet.

I wondered about the sliders a while ago because it seemed the slider heads don't exactly line up with the end of the field, but since Lab and others work fine this may have to do with the greyscale and CMYK conversion.

I am very curious about the outcome because I need to use the exact colours which are synchronised in Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, all Office applications, and even in Dreamweaver.

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 11, 2022

Sorry to add to it, still it might be good to know that if I change the colour value in the colour fields (CMYK) these values are not used, not even if I use a saved swatch in the 'Swatches' panel. This is not visible until I 'Alt-click' to sample the colour (which is a solid so there should not be a problem with that). The four sliders are affected.

Could there be a problem with the conversion from RGB to both K and CMYK?

A big problem is that I need to use specific colours to go with the brand books. These colours are saved as swatches in the 'Swatches' panel of course. I select one and check the colour values in the sliders, then use the colour, and sample it: the colour values in the sliders then change. This is bad because I have created hundreds of files with the wrong colours, as it now turns out 😞

Mica M.
Mica M.Author
Inspiring
February 10, 2022

I decided to give this a try with CMYK sliders in an RGB file.

The problem is the same. 

Here is a video. It is very frustrating to not be able to use the colours I absolutely need.

The trick to reset the paint bucket by switching to a different tool does not help in this case: the colour stays wrong and the 'Pencil' and 'Brush' will use the wrong colour. This is not visible in the 'Color' panel until I sample it with the 'Eyedropper' tool. I checked if colour preferences and settings had been corrupted but this is not the case.

https://youtu.be/StZMoFMKSbE