Why do all my images open as grayscale?

[Crystal Carlson]

No matter what I change my settings to, all images I open in photoshop come in as grayscale.  Any suggestions?

[hari_kdr]

Can you provide me the more details like what version you are using, system details etc.,

[Puzzled_Lins]

I'd like to tack on my question as well since it sounds similar.

I'm using PhotoShop CS4 and I've opened a black and white jpg.  It's solid black with a white background and 300ppi.  It's a ridiculously simple image.  All I'm trying to do is change the black to a color.  I wanted to just grab the bucket tool and dump on some color.  However, when I selected the color as my foreground color, I noticed I'm no longer in RGB (seems only Adobe gods know why).  It's showing a grayscale horizontal bar in my colors tab on the top right.  I also see a rainbow colored horizontal bar.  Color picker worked fine but as soon as I chose my color it went back to gray as my foreground color.

How do I get back to RGB?  I've fiddled around with this for 2 1/2 hours looking for solutions online and in the help sections on the program.  I'm now more educated on what colors are and how they're used and their deep geneauology but unfortunately, none of that has been able to tell me how to flip back to RGB. 

Also, when I tried opening a new blank image the color selection was fine.  Do you think it's something funky with the image locking in a grayscale?  I also tried reopening PhotoShop. 

HOLD ON!!  I FIXED IT!!

Well, I hope this helps Crystal (above).

I hit the "Image" tab, "Mode" and saw that "grayscale" was checked.  I have no idea how that happened but I selected "RGB" and I have color.  I'm sure you were all holding your breath, right? 

[SVEsigns]

I'm not holding my breath any longer. Thanks for the info.

[Trudy Salmon]

The image you imported was probably saved in grayscale by the original creator, hence when it opened in PS, the program preserved those settings.

[Vasnik12]

Thank you so much! You saved my life

[miguelmenendez]

Hi Crystal,

i think what keeps all grayscale images, regardless of your actions, is a preference on the Edit menu> Color Settings, the option "Advanced Controls" must be activated "Desaturate Monitor Colors in" and the value must be in 100%.

miguel menéndez

[miguelmenendez]

If is that, the correct values are Edit menu> Color Settings, the option "Advanced Controls" NO activate "Desaturate Colors in Monitor"

[Guest]

Well, up until recently, the only way to gain control over the conversion was to use Photoshop's Channel Mixer, which was fine as long as you understood a thing or two about how Channels work. Even then, using the Channel Mixer never really seemed natural because it forced us to think like Photoshop rather than asking Photoshop to think like us. For something as common as converting color photos to black and white, there had to be a better way.And now there is a

tool you'll ever need to convert your color images to black and white. It's called the black and white adjustment, and it's easy, it's totally natural....

[YPCE Marketing Team · Accepted solution]

I finally fixed mine.  I went to the Edit menu: Edit>Preferences>General>Reset Preferences on Quit button (and then close program and restart)

The Reset Preferences on Quit button is toward the bottom-middle-right of the General panel.

Karen

[jordanb85947540]

This actually works! kudos KarenCityofSacramento! Thanks!

[kevinp93817972]

I had this problem too, and what I had done wrong was when I opened a new file, the "Color Mode" was set to "Grayscale." Hope that helps someone!

[Guest]

I love U bro thanks its really helpful.

[Guest]

Yea I had this problem too but I checked setting and my "Color Mode" was set to "Grayscale."

reklama busko

[Guest]

Hi Sir,

I checked my color settings but i never get color mode where it is?

All my laptop things are changed to  grayscale, could you please help me to overcome this problem into original.

Thank you for your help in advance.

[juliav57362533]

I have the same issue. I've tried every proposed solution in this forum. Does anyone else have ideas?

Crystal, were you able to fix the problem?

[Guest]

Hi Sir,

Could you please confrim me where can i go for "edit Menu" as i am unable to get it.

Actually my problem is through my laptop all things are coverted into grayscale even in movies, pictures, letters etc., please provide me to overcome this. i am very very tensed about this.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[carissah49517592]

That worked! Thanks!

[RBEL]

Ace. Did the trick. Still annoying i have to put all preferences back again, but at least I got to create a jpg file of my logo in color... Thanks!

[Kandie5C1E]

Wow this worked like a charm, thank you!

[Penny296346392i6s]

SOLUTION! I tried everything from here and wouldnt work. This worked: Image (top bar) > mode > RGB colour 🙂

[Ankita378296132kal]

Change mode to RGB/CMYK, it should work - I just had the same problem, this solved it

Properties tab on the right  -> Mode -> change mode to desired setting (typically RGB or CMYK for colour)