Bring Back Gray Gamma Profile Option for Black & White in ACR

[Bruce Lynn23649628u14k]

I’ve noticed that recent updates to Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) have removed the automatic grayscale color profile (such as Gray Gamma 2.2) that used to be applied when converting images to Black & White. This behavior was present in earlier versions and provided a cleaner, more neutral tonal rendering for monochrome workflows.

Now, even when applying B&W edits in ACR, the image remains in an RGB working space (like sRGB or AdobeRGB), which can lead to subtle tonal shifts, unnecessary RGB channel interference, and less predictable results—especially for those of us preparing black and white prints or working in controlled grayscale environments.

Previously, my workflow involved:

1. Editing in ACR with the grayscale profile automatically assigned

2. Making final adjustments in Photoshop

3. Converting to sRGB only when needed for export

This provided superior tonal control and visual purity compared to working in RGB from the start. Now, I can no longer replicate the same look without manual grayscale conversion steps in Photoshop.

Request:
Please consider reintroducing the option for Camera Raw to assign a grayscale color profile when B&W edits are applied. A toggle in the preferences would allow users like me to preserve a clean monochrome workflow without affecting others.

Thank you for your time and for continuing to improve Camera Raw.

[D Fosse]

ACR still encodes into Gray Gamma 2.2 automatically, when the "Adobe Monochrome" profile is chosen.

 

[davescm]

ACR still encodes into Gray Gamma 2.2 automatically, when the "Adobe Monochrome" profile is chosen.

If it is not doing that and using a different ICC profile then choose Adobe Monochrome development profile in the Profile panel, click on the ICC profile at the bottm of the screen and, in the dialogue that opens, change the ICC profile to that of your choice. That will be used whenever you use the Adobe Monochrome develpment profile, but will not affect the color development profiles. I suspect the OP's defaults have been changed

Dave

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

Yes, I was a bit unclear. I meant Gray Gamma 2.2 was still the default.

Obviously, you an change the output profile to whatever you want.