Hex color changes every time in Photoshop

[hd817]

I'm trying to change the color of a logo to another brand color using a hex code. After doing so, it automatically changes to a different hex code! Sometimes it's a very similar color and sometimes if its a gray color it changes to tan. How can I fix this? 

[mglush]

HI!

What version of Photoshop are you using? Can you show us a screen shot of your image in the window with all of the panels that you are using open so we can see them? How are you applying the Hex color numbr? What color mode are you in? RGB?

Michelle

[hd817]

I'm using Photoshop 25.9.0 on macOS 14.3 (not sure if that matters). For instance, the color I needed for this one was f8f8f8, but it changed to dfdada once I clicked “ok”. 

[mglush]

Thanks for the screen shots! I think Chuck asks a great question about which RGB you are using and could be the contribuiting factor.

Is this logo going to be used in print?

Because f8f8f8 is c2. m1. y1. b0 -- which is basically white. The percentage of color you have in that hex number will not be visible if you are going to use it for print purposes. The RGB values are 248, 248, 248 which again is only 2 less than white 250,250,250. What color are you looking for?

Please let us know the rgb profile and how you will be using the artwork?

Thanks,

Michelle

[hd817]

It will be used digitally and print. The f8f8f8 is just a color I like to use for a slight contrast digitally. I just used it as an example for the change in color when saved, but it changes every color. The profile is Adobe RGB. 

Thanks for all your help! I've spent hours trying to figure it out 🤦🏻‍:female_sign:

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I'm using Photoshop 25.9.0 on macOS 14.3 (not sure if that matters). For instance, the color I needed for this one was f8f8f8, but it changed to dfdada once I clicked “ok”. 

By @hd817

»Replace Color« is destructive and therefore, in my opinion, utterly unfit for serious work. 

What are you trying to achieve?

Could you please post screenshots taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible?  

[Chuck Uebele]

Also what RGB profile are you using: Adobe RGB, sRGB, etc?

[hd817]

Adobe RGB

[Lumigraphics]

Hex colors are notoriously unspecific and not really designed for print. You might try saving a good sample as a swatch that you can reuse in other projects.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Maybe you should use the Layer Style »Color Overlay« or simply a Solid Color Layer, then it should be easy to check the persistence of the color values for those. 

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

The problem here is Replace Color. Not because it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, but because nearly everybody misunderstands how it works. And that's the case here too. This comes up very frequently.

In digital images, "color" has a narrower meaning than in everyday speech. In digital images, the color and luminance components are stricly separate and independent from each other. A darker shade is not a "darker color" as you will say when choosing wall paint, it's a darker luminance.

The Replace Color tool works only on the color component. It does not work on the luminance component! If you have a bright yellow and you use the replace color tool with a saturated purple - what you get is a pale lilac. That's because the luminance is unchanged.

The reason this is so, is that blend modes wouldn't be possible at all otherwise. If color blend mode changed luminance as well - then you would just have Normal mode. A paintbrush in color blend mode would just be a perfectly standard normal paint brush.

And with all that said, I also think the replace tool is the most useless tool in all of Photoshop. It's a destructive tool in the worst sense, impossible to tweak once the stroke has been put down. The proper way to do this is to make a mask of the desired area, then use any of the more sophisticated adjustment tools Photoshop has to offer.