Pattern Preview Bug: picking wrong colors outside of canvas

[Hannes Drexl]

Can anyone reproduce this bug?

- Create a new document, RGB 8 bit, untagged.

- Fill it with #ff0000

- Go to View -> Pattern Preview

- Use the color picker, set it to Point Sample and Sample All Layers

- Pick the red color *outside* of the canvas (depicted by the thin border)

The picked color is not #ff0000 but #e43316.

If I use the color picker inside the canvas, it picks the correct color.

Using 26.2.0 and Windows 10.

[Ged_Traynor]

@Hannes Drexl just tested on my system and cannot reproduce the issue, Photoshop version 26.2 on Windows 10, have you tried manually resetting your Photoshop preferences
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually
Remember to back up your settings before doing the preference reset
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preset-migration.html

[Hannes Drexl]

I tried as you suggested, but the bug persists for me.

[Hannes Drexl]

Another observation I made:

- it does not happen with greyscales

- it only starts occuring once one of the rgb values is greater than 2

My colleagues with the same Photoshop version also cannot reproduce it. But since resetting my preferences doesn't fix it, what else could be different on my setup that interferes with this? We have the same hardware and should be on the same driver versions.

[davescm]

When using the colour picker, Photoshop  picks up the document colour directly when on canvas. However when off canvas (and that includes the pattern preview) it picks up the colour as sent to screen i.e translated from the document to those required by your monitor as defined the monitor profile set in the operating system. This will be a different value to that in the actual document. As for different PCs, there are two things at play. A non colour managed document will be displayed using the default RGB colour profile for that PC. Key though is that the monitor profile should, be different on each PC, as that is specific to the monitor.

You could raise a feature request that the pattern preview area should be treated by the colour picker in the same way as the on canvas area, which would seem sensible.

Dave

[Hannes Drexl]

I do have software that can switch the monitor profile. I tried all different settings available (default is set so sRGB), but the color picked outside the canvas is always the same. Also disabling the software does not make any difference. We also use the same monitor in our team, so it's strange that only I have this problem, if it is monitor related.

[D Fosse]

The monitor profile is not a property of the monitor itself. The monitor profile is a standard icc profile, just like any other icc profile like sRGB or Adobe RGB. The profile doesn't do anything. It is a description, a map, of how the monitor behaves. A profile is a description of a color space. The profile is used by Photoshop in a standard profile conversion, executed on the fly.

What Dave is saying is that outside the canvas you're not getting document values; you're getting a screenshot. And a screenshot has always been converted into the monitor profile. The document values don't apply.

You have one major randomizing factor in your workflow:

Create a new document, RGB 8 bit, untagged.

Without an embedded color profile, the RGB numbers are undefined. They can produce any color in any situation. With an embedded profile, the numbers are defined. Then it only means one certain specific color.

In short - this is not a bug, but it is behavior that might not be the most efficient even though there are good reasons for it. So post a feature request.

[Hannes Drexl]

Okay, but what I don't understand is how this problem only occurs on my machine then? Shouldn't it be the same result on identical hardware/software at least?

[davescm]

You will see different results on different machines depending on what profile is set, in the operating system, for the monitor. You may well be using the same make and model of monitor, but are they calibrated and profiled?

You mentioned switching monitor settings and the values picked up being the same. The values do change when the monitor profile in the operating system is changed. So although you set your monitor to different settings, the changed monitor profile needs to be loaded into the operating system, and Photoshop restarted to pick up that changed profile. I use Eizo monitors here and the Eizo software does load a new profile when the calibration setting is changed and that does result in different values after restarting Photoshop (I tested it).

So, as D Fosse said, when off canvas the colour picker works like a screenshot and takes its values via the monitor profile. That is normal and is not a bug. The idea/feature request would be to treat the extended pattern preview area as on canvas rather than off canvas. That way it would pick up the document colour values rather than the screen values. It would of course rely on you working with a colour managed document, if you want consistency across other PCs, working untagged is a guarantee of inconsistency.

Dave

[Hannes Drexl]

Our monitors (Dell U2724D) are factory calibrated, but we don't have calibration hardware ourselves. I tried changing the monitor profile and restarting Photoshop, however the RGB value of the color picked outside the canvas is identical, no matter which profile I select. So I don't think it has anything to do with the monitor profiles. Creating a color managed document also returns the wrong value in the pattern preview area.

I understand now that Photoshop treats the area outside the canvas differently and that this might work as intended, even if it is not intuitive, I'm just still puzzled why I'm the only one experiencing this issue. I'd like to get to the bottom of why it's only happening on my machine.