Which is the correct way to check you work in grayscale?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
May 14, 2020
2 replies
8442 views

Hey good people! Ok so, I have my photo in PS, if I go to Image > Mode > Grayscale I get result A. If instead, I simply add a Black & White layer, I get result B. If instead, I simply add a fill layer > choose white or black as the color and change the Blend Mode to Color, I get result C. That's 3 different results! I can't use the first method to check my work because it converts everything, but theoretically, that is proper grayscale. So, how can I correctly check my work in grayscale if the other 2 methods that everyone (me included) says to use, are theoretically incorrect? Or am I going about this the wrong way?

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Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

Who (apart from you) actually recommends to preview for actual grayscale printing with a Black & White Adjustment Layer?

4C printing has become fairly cheap so a lot of material isn’t printed with just black anymore and a 4C-black allows for deeper blacks (naturally) so maybe some people were actually talking about a b&w-effect but not actually about printing 1C?

Save the correct Preview condition (from View > Proof Setup > Custom) and you can switch between the RGB display and the preview easily with cmd-Y (View > Proof Colors).

c.pfaffenbichler

Correct answer

Community Expert

Who (apart from you) actually recommends to preview for actual grayscale printing with a Black & White Adjustment Layer?

4C printing has become fairly cheap so a lot of material isn’t printed with just black anymore and a 4C-black allows for deeper blacks (naturally) so maybe some people were actually talking about a b&w-effect but not actually about printing 1C?

Save the correct Preview condition (from View > Proof Setup > Custom) and you can switch between the RGB display and the preview easily with cmd-Y (View > Proof Colors).

A

alexh96098050Author

Participant

Thanks for the quick response! So I'm affraid I wasn't specific enough before. It wasn't really regarding print and such, simply speaking, when I dodge and burn for instance, I like to do it while viewing in grayscale so I don't get distracted by colors. In any case, tutorials like phlearn and most anything I viewed in the past said to use either black/white layer or fill layer. In fact a google search led me to an official adobe post that specifically said to use the black/white layer. However, I just checked out what you said about the proof colors and can say that you are right. That's what I was looking for! I just need to figure out the difference between the gamma 2.2 and sgray...if there is any. Thanks so much!

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yes, proof is the way to go here.

sGray is the tone response curve of sRGB - which is not a regular gamma curve. If the document is sRGB, this will be the best grayscale match.

Adobe RGB uses a regular gamma 2.2 curve, so with an Adobe RGB file Gray Gamma 2.2 will match.

ProPhoto has a gamma 1.8 curve.

And just in case you're curious, the dot gain profiles don't apply here. They are generic offset print profiles intended to compensate for ink spreading in paper, making halftone dots bigger. Nowadays they are not used, as dot gain is built into all CMYK profiles and you use "black ink - <CMYK profile>" instead.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

View > Proof Setup > Custom etc.

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