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Where can I find the hex code in Photoshop 2020?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
July 13, 2020
2 replies
40099 views

In the Photoshop 2020 this lovely hex code in the bottom has disappear and I wonder why? I really need this when I'm working with the color.

I have only RGB code and before I also have hex code in the bottom to see the right color. I am working with color in Photoshop and find this disappointment when hex code disappear. Can I search or in the settings area find a way where I can show hex code again?

Correct answer davescm

@ktgilead If you are working in an 8 bit/channel or 16 bit/channel document, use the eyedropper tool to get the color picker and read off the hex code. That is it.

Be aware though, that the hex code you read is dependant on the colour profile of your document. The same colour will have different Hex codes in sRGB, AdobeRGB, ProPhoto etc When using a Hex code for entry elsewhere you really need to know which profile the entry field expects the Hex codes to be referenced to. Most, incorrectly, do not specify that reference profile, and just assume it will be referenced to sRGB. In that case make sure your document is also in sRGB (use Convert to profile if it is not) before reading the code.

Dave

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yes, Dave is right. Hex code is a bad habit, a leftover from the old days before modern color management was invented. It will not give you accurate color unless you also specify a color space like sRGB, Adobe RGB etc.

It wasn't any more accurate back then, but as long as everyone stayed within an sRGB environment, using CRT monitors, it would at least be ballpark. It still is, but you can't even think about any other color space than sRGB. Then the numbers go off the map.

My theory is that hex gained widespread use because it looks geekish and computer-like, so it gives a sense of "precision". Which is utterly false. As Dave says, it's just base 16 RGB numbers.

jane-e

Community Expert

@D Fosse wrote:

Hex code is a bad habit, a leftover from the old days before modern color management was invented.

I remember when Adobe first added hexadecimal codes to Photoshop. I'm thinking PS6, but I could be wrong. In those days, web colors had to either be one of a limited number of words (red, teal, violet...) or it had to be in hex. Before PS had a text box for the hex codes, we had to go to the web, get the codes for the color, and then put the number into Notepad where we were typing the HTML code line by line.

This was in the days of 256 colors on monitors, 216 of which were the same on both PCs and Macs.

Things change over the years. Monitors display more colors; we have color management, and there are more ways to input colors when creating XHTML.

This is from https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp

"HTML colors are specified with predefined color names, or with RGB, HEX, HSL, RGBA, or HSLA values."

@davescm wrote:

Actually Hex codes without the context of a particular color space are meaningless anyway and should be dropped from all color pickers.

I vividly remember being thrilled when hex first showed up in the color pickers! It made our web work so much easier! All the same, in my opinion its useful life is long since over and I don't remember when I last used it.

On the other hand, if Adobe were to drop hex from the color pickers, how many angry folks do you think we would hear from who still use an outdated workflow? And remember that W3Schools includes hex.

I don't think it can be dropped.

~ Jane

Conrad_C

Community Expert

Thanks for this response, Jane. I'm using Photoshop to find hex codes from images specifically for a CSS tool I need to use for my job.
Hex certainly isn't best, but some of us are stuck using it.

@Torrence21922080vti0 wrote:

I'm using Photoshop to find hex codes from images specifically for a CSS tool I need to use for my job.

If you just need to get the hex color values used in an image, can you use the Info panel set to Web Color, as shown in the demo below? And if you want to copy the color values to the clipboard, will it work for you to right-click the Eyedropper tool on the color and choose Copy Color’s Hex Code, also shown?

For web work, this probably works most consistently when the document being sampled is in sRGB.

@Torrence21922080vti0 wrote:

Hex certainly isn't best, but some of us are stuck using it.

One thing that really changed how I specify web color is finding out that hex is not the only way to do it. The CSS standard totally accepts color specified as RGB, so if all you have is an RGB value, you can simply save a step and enter the RGB value directly, for example:

rgb(255, 99, 71)

Although I am not a web designer by trade, so far I have never broken website CSS by entering colors as RGB instead of hex.

davescm

Community Expert

Are you working in 8 bit or 16 bits/channel ?

If you are in 32 bit linear then a different colour picker is used and hex codes would be completely meaningless* in such a colour space.

* Actually Hex codes without the context of a particular color space are meaningless anyway and should be dropped from all color pickers. They are just RGB numbers in base16 and do not describe a particular colour unless they are accompanied by "in xxxxx color space"

Dave

Tina-SoulelleAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you for replaying Dave! And also of what you think here about the ability of hex code. Thank you once again.

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