Skip to main content
S
silver.hunter
Inspiring
May 25, 2017
Answered

Mode change from RGB to grayscale not working

  • May 25, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 3106 views

I am using CS6 to import a number of pdf files in RGB then remove a coloured identifying stripe then convert to grayscale before saving as a tif file. This was working ok, using IMAGE>MODE to convert to grayscale, but suddenly this has stopped working and will not convert the coloured image unless I first convert it to indexed colour. The pdf files have been obtained from scanned images using Vuescan.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer silver.hunter

    I seem to have found the problem. It seems to lie with the conversion from tif file to pdf done within the Pixillion program.

    The earlier files I worked on, the pdfs were created from PS. (Best not get into the reasons, as it would take too much time). I opened one of the Pixillion pdf files in PS and saved it as a pdf from PS. When I opened that new pdf in PS it converted to grayscale without any problem. I also found that converting the imported pdf to a tif file by saving it as a tif allowed the grayscale conversion to work. Thus not a PS problem at all and easily handled for future files.

    Thanks to all those who tried to help.

    2 replies

    S
    silver.hunterAuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    May 25, 2017

    I seem to have found the problem. It seems to lie with the conversion from tif file to pdf done within the Pixillion program.

    The earlier files I worked on, the pdfs were created from PS. (Best not get into the reasons, as it would take too much time). I opened one of the Pixillion pdf files in PS and saved it as a pdf from PS. When I opened that new pdf in PS it converted to grayscale without any problem. I also found that converting the imported pdf to a tif file by saving it as a tif allowed the grayscale conversion to work. Thus not a PS problem at all and easily handled for future files.

    Thanks to all those who tried to help.

      Benjamin Root
      Benjamin Root
      Legend
      May 25, 2017

      Glad you got the problem figured out!

      As for the Photoshop reset, you have to be extremely fast. There is a manual way to delete the files, but sounds like you don't need that now.

      Benjamin Root
      Benjamin Root
      Legend
      May 25, 2017

      I'm not a scan expert, but since you mention the problem occurred recently and abruptly, try a preference reset.

      Win: Press and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift immediately after initiating Photoshop's startup. A box will appear asking if you want to continue with the reset, select "yes." If you don't see this, you weren't fast enough...Try again.

      Mac: Press and hold Cmd+Opt+Shift then start Photoshop. A box will appear, asking if you want to continue with the reset, select "yes."

      S
      silver.hunterAuthor
      Inspiring
      May 25, 2017

      That gave me a message about loading plug-ins. What preference was I supposed to be resetting?

      As far as I can see, the problem is not associated with the external scanning program as that has not changed. For various reasons of convenience the files are scanned and saved as a colour tif file, converted to pdf  in Pixillion Image converter. then opened in Photoshop in RGB mode, all necessary clean-up operations performed then converted to grayscale and saved. As a matter of checking I opened an original colour scan file that has already been done and tried to convert it to grayscale (which has already been done successfully) and it would not change, thus it appears to be something that has changed within PS.

      Benjamin Root
      Benjamin Root
      Legend
      May 25, 2017

      Pardon my lack of clarity. You'll be resetting Photoshop's preferences. If you received a message about plugins, that means only Shift was giving input...Holding Shift while launching Photoshop gives the option to skip loading any third-party plugins.

      Photoshop CS6 is not being updated, nor has it been for quite some time. That, along with the sudden behavior change, would seem to indicate Photoshop's preferences have a problem. Can't guarantee this will fix the problem, but quite likely it will.  

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices