Implementing out of Gamut Warning in Color Picker

[iang37044865]

Hello,

I'm having trouble resolving a mystery here. I recall Photoshop's color picker having the option to display out of gamut color zones as grayed out areas. 

I cannot seem to find this function now (Im using version 24.4.1). 

Here is a picture of how it used to look (greyed out zones in color picker). 

Is this no longer a feature in photoshop or am I doing something wrong? I've tried turning on gamut warning but it doesnt affect color picker.

Thanks

[D Fosse]

It's under View > Gamut warning, shift+ctrl+Y

But honestly, that function is next to useless because it doesn't tell you how much out of gamut.

Soft proof is vastly more useful. It gives you direct visual feedback - how it will actually look.

Also, don't forget the good old histogram. If any one channel is solidly backed up against 0 or 255, you have gamut clipping, and you see at a glance how bad it is. The histogram is an instant health check.

[iang37044865]

Hm. Any reason why it wouldn't appear? I've reset my settings, and tried out both Photoshop and Photoshop Beta. It doesnt show those greyed out zones in the color picker when I turn on Gamut Warning with the shortcut

[Conrad_C]

Some ideas…

You say it doesn’t work with the shortcut, but does it work if you choose the command from the menu as D Fosse described (View > Gamut Warning)? The purpose of this question is to eliminate the possibility that something else on the system is intercepting the keyboard shortcut. The menu command should always work. It works on my Mac, in Photoshop version 24.5. Another thing to check is that the shortcut is still assigned to View > Gamut Warning, because if it was customized it might do something else.

As far as I can tell, Gamut Warning seems to check against the gamut of the CMYK working space set up in Edit > Color Settings. What is your CMYK working space set to? This question comes from noticing that the color picker gamut warning area changes depending on that CMYK working space profile. I thought Gamut Warning in the color picker would check against the current Proof Setup color space, as Proof Colors does, but that doesn’t seem to change the gamut warning area like the CMYK working space does.

Also, what is the color space of the document itself?

[D Fosse]

I thought Gamut Warning in the color picker would check against the current Proof Setup color space, as Proof Colors does, but that doesn’t seem to change the gamut warning area like the CMYK working space does.

By @Conrad_C

It does here. This screenshot has Adobe RGB embedded for the benefit of those with wide gamut displays:

(edit: oh, and as per the original question, if you want the overlay in the color picker, press ctrl+shift+Y with the color picker open).

[Conrad_C]

Yes, what you show is also what I see, the Gamut Warning display responds to Proof Setup in the document window. That’s always worked as expected. But it does not seem to work that way in the Color Picker, which is the distinction I was mentioning. Do you get different Gamut Warning coverage in the Color Picker if the Proof Setup changes?

[D Fosse]

Ah, got it. Yes, you're right, that seems to be hard-wired to the working CMYK.

It seems to be linked to the warning triangle in the sample field - both of them separated from the actual proof conditions. Which, obviously, makes them even more useless.

Not something I have ever used or looked at until now.

[iang37044865]

The color space is RBG. Though I also tried changing it to CMYK and it also doesnt work.

The gamut warning appears in the actual image, but not in the color picker. 

[D Fosse]

@iang37044865 RGB and CMYK are not color spaces - they are generic color models. A color space is sRGB, Adobe RGB, US Web Coated (SWOP) etc etc etc.

To be of any use at all, a gamut warning overlay needs to reflect the actual color space. Otherwise it's useless.

[iang37044865]

Ah I see. Color space is sRGB IEC611966-2.1

[NB, colourmanagement net]

@D Fosse  writes " The histogram is an instant health check."

yep, that’s how I do it / teach it

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management