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September 8, 2011
Answered

My color picker will only show colors in greys

  • September 8, 2011
  • 5 replies
  • 116777 views

All of a sudden when I try using my paint bucket or eye dropper or color picker it will interpret the color I choose in a grey. It is utilizing the grey scale only.

What happened. I am working in CS3. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Correct answer ellens69259960

This is 2025 info, but at this point it's worth noting if your eye dropper tool is set to sample just "current layer" or "all layers". Click on your eye dropper and mod the drop down on the top tool bar if necessary. THEN when you go into your text color and use the eye dropper, it should be picking up what you click on.

5 replies

ellens69259960Correct answer
Participant
March 23, 2025

This is 2025 info, but at this point it's worth noting if your eye dropper tool is set to sample just "current layer" or "all layers". Click on your eye dropper and mod the drop down on the top tool bar if necessary. THEN when you go into your text color and use the eye dropper, it should be picking up what you click on.

Participating Frequently
June 24, 2022

Hello Adobe,

Adobe Photoshop & illustrator, when the colour I choose in a grey shows the brown screen. Save as JPG or png look shows another grey is real or Microsoft paint shows grey screen good. What happened? How do I will fix this?
Please help for me

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 27, 2022

Is your currently open document (file) perhaps 'greyscale mode'? That would do it.

 

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

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 21, 2022

Is your currently open document (file) perhaps 'greyscale mode'? That would do it.

 

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

Inspiring
September 19, 2020

What if I'm in RGB mode and I'm not selecting a mask? I can select colors with the color picker manually, but holding ALT and sampling a color shows the correct color, but as soon as I let go of the click it changes to grey.

Participant
January 21, 2022

Select the Eyedropper tool and check if you're sample size is point select and not an avarage like 3 by 3. Point sample is the actual pixel and ther other options select an average, which most of the time turn them into a grey colour because it combines a lot of colours. Hope that solves your problem

Participant
October 8, 2024

Thank you so much. This works for me 🙂

Chris Cox
Legend
September 8, 2011

I bet you're targetting a mask, or went into quick mask mode.


September 8, 2011

I played around with the quick mask tool and it didn't correct the problem. Any other ideas?

Mylenium
Legend
September 8, 2011

Need to do an Image --> Mode --> RGB perhaps....?

Mylenium