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Hello, ever since a few months ago, my Photoshop workspace does not show the colors correctly. Only after exporting or in camera raw the colors are shown correctly. This is quite frustrating and I'm wondering if anyone knows how to fix this. Example picture attached with left side in Photoshop (desaturated and weird), and right side after saving with the correct colors.
Thank you!
I actually solved the problem yesterday after also posting in another community, there was a setting in Photoshop that made the pictures appear at - 20% saturation which I simply had to deselect.
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What is the image’s Color Space?
Is the profile embedded in the file?
Which other application/s are you using to view the image and are they Color Managed?
Please set the Status Bar to »Document Profile« and post more meaningful screenshots.
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I actually solved the problem yesterday after also posting in another community, there was a setting in Photoshop that made the pictures appear at - 20% saturation which I simply had to deselect.
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So now that your color settings are fixed, you might want to save them as configured so you can load them again. Notice the Save and Load buttons in that dialog.
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You need to provide some details.
EDIT cross post, so you get the questions twice 😉
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The issue was within Photoshop, had nothing to do with other applications, since the picture showed the true colors even in camera raw, but not in the working space. I actually solved the problem yesterday after also posting in another community, there was a setting in Photoshop that made the pictures appear at - 20% saturation which I simply had to deselect.
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This could be your problem: Windows display profile, display profile issues on Windows
Here's something to try
It'll only take a few minutes and is good troubleshooting.
At least once a week on this forum we read about this, or very similar issues of appearance differing between colour managed applications.
Of course you must not expect accurate colour with programs such as Windows "Photos", because in most versions colour management is not implemented there, so such programs are incapable of providing accurate image display.
Unfortunately, with Microsoft hardware: Windows updates, Graphics Card updates and Display manufacturers have a frustratingly growing reputation for automatically installing useless (corrupted) monitor display profiles.
I CAN happen with Macs but with far less likelihood, it seems.]
The issue can affect different application programs in different ways, some not at all, some very badly.
The poor monitor display profile issue is hidden by some applications, specifically those that do not use colour management, such as Microsoft Windows "Photos".
Photoshop is correct, it’s the industry standard for viewing images, in my experience it's revealing an issue with the Monitor Display profile rather than causing it. Whatever you do, don't ignore it. As the issue isn’t caused by Photoshop, please don’t change your Photoshop ‘color settings’ to try fix it.
To find out if the monitor display profile is the issue, I recommend you to try temporarily setting the monitor profile for your own monitor display under “Device” in your Windows ‘color management’ control panel to “sRGB IEC61966-2.1”. (If you have a wide gamut monitor display (check the spec online) it’s better to try ‘AdobeRGB1998” here instead as it more closely approximates the display characteristics).
Click ‘Start’, type color in the search box,
then click Color Management. In the Devices tab, ensure that your monitor is selected in the Device field.
You can click to ADD to add “sRGB IEC61966-2.1” (or AdobeRGB1998) if not already listed there.
Again - IF you have a wide gamut display I suggest trying “AdobeRGB1998”
Once it’s selected, be sure to check “Use my settings for this device” up top.
And click on “set as Default Profile - bottom right
Screenshot of Color Management Control Panel
Quit and relaunch Photoshop after the control panel change, to ensure the new settings are applied.
Depending on the characteristics of your monitor display and your requirements, using sRGB or Adobe RGB here may be good enough - but no display perfectly matches either, so a custom calibration is a superior approach.
If this change to the Monitor Display profile temporarily fixes the appearance issue, it is recommended that you should now calibrate and profile the monitor properly using a calibration sensor like the i1display pro, which will create and install its own custom monitor profile. The software should install its profile correctly so there should be no need to manually set the control panel once you are doing this right.
Still got problems?
Perhaps try resetting Photoshop preferences?
Resetting restores Photoshop's internal preferences, which are saved when Photoshop closes. If they become corrupt then various issues can occur.
Here’s some info on how to do that:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html
And
You may want to backup your settings and your custom presets, brushes & actions before restoring Photoshop's preferences.
Here is general info that: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#BackupPhotoshoppreferences
Also take a look at the following article and check if that helps:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/printing-color-management-photoshop1.html
Preferences file location: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/preference-file-names-locations-photoshop.html
It may even be time to reinstall Photoshop.
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My issue was that any other program except Photoshop showed the true colors of the photo, even camera raw in Photoshop did, just not the working space itself. I actually solved the problem yesterday after also posting in another community, there was a setting in Photoshop that made the pictures appear at - 20% saturation which I simply had to deselect.
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The "Desaturate Monitor Color's" option really should not be "sticky" imo. Too dangerous (as you have discovered). It really is only for specialist (temporary) viewing of images and it's pretty dangerous if you check it then close the color settings dialog.
we could have alerted you to that if you'd posted a screenshot of your color settings.
I hope this helps neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
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Although this option is unchecked by default, it is also by default set to 20%.
I once accidentally clicked the checkmark, and it took me a long time to figure out what had happened.
So I set it to 0% and clicked OK, and now it stays at 0, preventing this from happening again, until I install a new version, that is.
Color settings are for some reason not transferred to the new version when upgrading. New versions always open with North America General Purpose.
Probably a bug or an oversight, I find it hard to believe that this behavior is intentional.
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"Color settings are for some reason not transferred to the new version when upgrading".
My custom color settings always transfer from new version to new version (on Mac).
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So it appears to be a bug in the Windows version, then.
Can other Windows users confirm this?
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The color settings are in your user account, along with the general preferences file. That folder is version specific. So I would not expect that to automatically migrate to a new version, but maybe it does. I've never really noticed because I always set up from scratch in a new version anyway.
(EDIT: I see it's dated 2020, so it must have migrated)
The second instance of the color settings file, without the period, was a bug of some sort, can't recall what it was.