Inspiring

Question

The gray keeps coming back

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
December 11, 2019
8 replies
5329 views

Hey clever people,

I'm a terrible newbie in Photoshop, and my programme is old, but new to me.

At first, I didn't find any colors at all; everything stayed in gray no matter what I did. Someone here told me to look in the Modes: it was in "Grayscale". I clicked on the RGB and hé presto, colors! I was pleased. 🙂

Only, this grayscale thing keeps coming back... Every time I shut Photoshop off, or take an other drawing, it's in grayscale again. I had thought once would be enough, but no.

Isn't there a way to make Mode CMYK or RGB stay on? Or is Grayscale an unavoidable default I have to live with?

This topic has been closed for replies.

D Fosse

Community Expert

To reset preferences, hold ctrl+alt+shift when launching. If you do it right, you get a confirmation dialog. If not, try again.

Oh, and btw - don't even think about CMYK. That's for commercial offset print like books and magazines. Desktop printers want RGB.

R

r-bin

Legend

For CS2 ctrl+shift+alt does not work. Only ctrl+alt works and not like ctrl+shift+alt.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Ah. Long time since CS2 🙂

D Fosse

Community Expert

Let's just keep this simple, shall we? 😉

Your file is grayscale. Go to Image > Mode and check "RGB Color".

That's it, that's all it takes. Now you can paint in color.

R

r-bin

Legend

If you are on windows, close the photoshop.
Rename (or delete) folder
"C: \ Users \ <USER_NAME> \ AppData \ Roaming \ Adobe \ Photoshop \ 9.0 \ Adobe Photoshop CS2 Settings"

Launch Photoshop. Check the opening of the jpg file.

CyranoAuthor

Inspiring

Rename it what?

And what do you mean by "check the opening of the jpg file"? Which jpg file?

R

r-bin

Legend

If you do not understand, then do nothing.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

Just because if you scanner is a color scanner, it can also just scan in B&W. Here's the setting from my scanner:

CyranoAuthor

Inspiring

Well, here's my Scan control panel. I hope you can understand enough Dutch to see that 24-bit kleuren" means 24-bit color".

I don't know how much more in color I can make it scan than this. And it's always in this mode, I never change it.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

It does look like it's set up for 24 bit color, right now.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

If your scanner can scan color, it can also just scan B&W. Here's the option from my scanner:

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

Sounds like you scanner is scanning in grayscale mode.

CyranoAuthor

Inspiring

Ah! You think? 😮

But my drawings are in black and white. What difference does it make how it's been scanned?

The jpg doesn't know how it was scanned... all it does is record what it gets.

But I can be wrong, I'll check.

One thing is sure: it happens just as well with drawings I made years ago, on the office's scanner which was never in grayscale... no matter what I open, it's always in grayscale mode.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

If you have you scanner set to grayscale, that's what you're going to get. The fact that your scans were black and white to begin with most likely is hiding the fact that the scans are only grayscale.

S

SJRiegel

Legend

When you make a new document, you get a choice of color mode in the dialog. If you change it to your preferred mode there, before clicking Create, the choice should be sticky, so that the next new document dialog with come up with your preferred mode selected.

CyranoAuthor

Inspiring

MMM... I can see the RGB-mode on the dialog box when I make a NEW empty canvas. But whenever I open an existing drawing, it makes an new canvas on top of the first one. And that new one, with my drawing on it, is in Grayscale again.

Only when I make a new canvas, go to my files, open a drawing and copy/paste it on that canvas, will it be in RGB right away. Anything I open from the files is always in grayscale to begin with.

So does that mean that I'll have to remember to always copy a drawing and paste it in there every time, instead of simply opening it from the files, in order to have it default in color?

CyranoAuthor

Inspiring

If you are opening file from disc and it is grayscale then it is probably saved with grayscale mode. Which file type you are using, where are created files which you are opening, in which aplication? Are that your files or you are receiving them?

There is a way to automatically convert files to RGB mode, You can use action or script. One way is to record action for this job and to add Open step so you can use action to open file which will be converted to RGB.

Another way is using Script Events Manager and action/script. Action is easier to record and we can probably help you in that job.

The files I open are Jpgs from drawings I made on paper and scanned into my computer. I use Irfanview for that, it usually works perfectly.

Whatever you explain after that, about action and script, I have not a clue as to what it means. Do you mean that menu in Windows, "Actions"? That opens a little box with a row of stuff I don't understand. What am I supposed to do there?

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

When you create a new document, make sure you select RGB or CMYK is the dialog box. That should make it come up the next time you create a document.

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