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Swatches Palette

peedeepeedee Registered Users Posts: 7 Beginner grinner
edited March 25, 2008 in Finishing School
I'm running Photoshop CS3 Extended in 32 bit Vista. Whenever I need a layer filled with 50% Gray I have been accustomed to select it from the default swatches palette (last box on the right side of the first row). However, I have just discovered - perhaps belatedly - that the RGB values that this selection produces are NOT R 128, G 128, B 128 but can vary between 131 and 147 depending on the color profile of the document that I am using at the moment.

I can verify that it is not 50% Gray by then changing the blending mode of the new layer to Overlay which, at least in theory as I understand it, should produce no color change to the underlying layer. However, I do observe changes.

I have also confirmed with others that this behaviour is the same for CS3 running in XP on a different make of computer.

Am I missing something fundamental?

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    BinaryFxBinaryFx Registered Users Posts: 707 Major grins
    edited March 25, 2008
    I personally usually select the 50% gray option from the edit/fill menu or dial in 0H 0S 50B in the HSB colour picker. I personally have little use for the swatches palette, so have not run into this particular issue.

    As a general point, it always pays to check the numbers rather than trusting the swatch unconditionally (even more so for CMYK where black can be made of many different values) .

    Stephen Marsh
    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx

    peedee wrote:
    I'm running Photoshop CS3 Extended in 32 bit Vista. Whenever I need a layer filled with 50% Gray I have been accustomed to select it from the default swatches palette (last box on the right side of the first row). However, I have just discovered - perhaps belatedly - that the RGB values that this selection produces are NOT R 128, G 128, B 128 but can vary between 131 and 147 depending on the color profile of the document that I am using at the moment.

    I can verify that it is not 50% Gray by then changing the blending mode of the new layer to Overlay which, at least in theory as I understand it, should produce no color change to the underlying layer. However, I do observe changes.

    I have also confirmed with others that this behaviour is the same for CS3 running in XP on a different make of computer.

    Am I missing something fundamental?
    http://binaryfx.customer.netspace.net.au/
    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
    http://prepression.blogspot.com/
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    peedeepeedee Registered Users Posts: 7 Beginner grinner
    edited March 25, 2008
    Swatches palette
    Thank you Stephen for the advice.

    I still don't understand why but if the swatches palette is unreliable as you have suggested then that is sufficient for me to change my workflow.

    Regards,

    Philip Darlow
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    BinaryFxBinaryFx Registered Users Posts: 707 Major grins
    edited March 25, 2008
    peedee wrote:
    Thank you Stephen for the advice.

    I still don't understand why but if the swatches palette is unreliable as you have suggested then that is sufficient for me to change my workflow.

    Regards,

    Philip Darlow
    Just to be clear Philip, you were the one that suggested that the swatches were not correct, not me! For many personal reasons, I have always "dialed in" the numbers by hand in Photoshop, whatever the numbers are (RGB, HSB, Lab, CMYK)...I rarely if ever use the swatch palette in Photoshop.

    In addition to my previous comments, when making a new layer one also has the option to fill it with a new neutral fill colour.


    Hope this helps,

    Stephen Marsh
    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx
    http://binaryfx.customer.netspace.net.au/
    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/
    http://prepression.blogspot.com/
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