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Skift
Participant
May 4, 2024
Open for Voting

Make colors more accurate. Add oklab to Photoshop (besides Gradient tool)

  • May 4, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 2359 views

I noticed that oklab (perceptual) method of showing colors was added to the gradient tool, and suggest that it be added as an option of displaying and choosing colors more accurately.

 

Here is a well known example of blue color inaccuracy with curent methods:

The left is what Oklab HSB/HSV would look like while on the right is the default RGB HSB/HSV that Photoshop currently uses.

 

It would also help solving color distotions when changing opacity and blend modes, because currently the only blend mode in photoshop that doesn't distort hues is Multiply.

Left is opacity at 50% using RGB method

Right is opacity at 50% using Oklab method (simulated)

 

using "lighten" blend mode with a different color

Left is current

Right is Oklab (simulated)

5 replies

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 7, 2024

»I don't know the exact function of the Lighten blend mode«

Quote from 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/blending-modes.html

»Lighten

Looks at the color information in each channel and selects the base or blend color—whichever is lighter—as the result color. Pixels darker than the blend color are replaced, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change.«

Skift
SkiftAuthor
Participant
May 5, 2024

@D Fosse  It's actually supposed to be a cyan-green color. I don't know the exact function of the Lighten blend mode so I could only really translate the output given.

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 5, 2024

Actually I'm not very impressed with the green example - it has its own hue shift towards cyan in the darker shades.

 

But no argument regarding the "perceptual" mode in the gradient tool. It's much better. The standard Lab model certainly has a very severe blue to purple shift as saturation decreases, which is what it does as you go to white.

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 4, 2024

Yeah, this is interesting. Oklab is a variation of Lab, as the name implies, but with much better perceptual uniformity. In particular, the blue to purple shift is familiar to most (but hard to find intelligible explanations for).

Skift
SkiftAuthor
Participant
May 4, 2024

Noticed I messed up the last image slightly, and there's no edit button, so here's the fixed image: