To use the eyedropper tool and Color palette to see color values:

1Choose Window > Color to open the Color palette.

2Open the color adjustment dialog box. This activates the eyedropper tool outside the dialog box and over the image.

3Click the pixel you want to check in the image.

4Make the adjustments in the dialog box, and before applying them, view the adjusted color values in the Color palette.

Saving and reapplying settings

The Save and Load buttons in the Levels, Curves (Photoshop), Hue/Saturation, Replace Color (Photoshop), Selective Color (Photoshop), and Variations dialog boxes let you save your settings and apply them to other images.

To save and reapply settings:

1Click Save in the adjustment dialog box you are using, and name and save the settings.

2Close the adjustment dialog box, and open the image to which you want to apply the adjustments.

3Reopen the adjustment dialog box, and click Load. Locate and load the saved adjustment file.

If you often apply the same adjustment, consider recording and running the adjustment as an action.

Comparing corrections in CMYK and RGB (Photoshop)

Even though you can perform all color and tonal corrections in either CMYK or RGB mode, you should choose a mode carefully. Whenever possible, avoid multiple conversions between modes, because color values are rounded and lost with each conversion. If an RGB image is to be used on-screen, you needn’t convert it to CMYK mode. Conversely, if a CMYK scan is to be separated and printed, you needn’t perform corrections in RGB mode.

If you must convert your image from one mode to another, it makes sense to perform most of your tonal and color corrections in RGB mode and use CMYK mode for fine-tuning. Advantages of working in RGB mode include the following:

•You can save memory and improve performance because you are working with fewer channels.

•You have more device independence, because RGB color spaces are not dependent on inks. Corrections made to the image are preserved regardless of the monitor, computer, or output device used.

•The gamut of RGB spaces is much larger than that of CMYK spaces, so more colors are likely to be preserved after adjustments.

Using the Proof Setup commands, you can preview composite CMYK colors and separation plates using the CMYK working space defined in the Color Settings dialog box. Or, you can preview colors using a custom CMYK color profile. (See “Soft-proofing colors” on page 113.)

Monitor CMYK colors as you edit in RGB mode by choosing Window > Documents > New Window to open a second window. Turn on the CMYK preview in one window

and leave it off in the other.

Identifying out-of-gamut colors (Photoshop)

The gamut is the range of colors that a color system can display or print. A color that can be displayed in RGB or HSB models may be out-of-gamut, and therefore unprintable, for your CMYK setting. (See “Color gamuts (Photoshop)” on page 91.)

Photoshop automatically brings all colors into gamut when you convert an image to CMYK. But you might want to identify the out-of-gamut colors in an image or correct them manually before converting to CMYK.

In RGB mode, you can identify out-of-gamut colors in the following ways:

•In the Info palette, an exclamation point appears next to the CMYK values whenever you move the pointer over an out-of-gamut color.

•In both the color picker and the Color palette, an alert triangle appears and the closest CMYK equivalent is displayed whenever you select an out-of-gamut color. To select the CMYK equivalent, click the triangle or the color patch.

You can also quickly identify all out-of-gamut colors in an RGB image by using the Gamut Warning command.

To turn on or off the highlighting of out-of-gamut colors:

1Choose View > Proof Setup, and choose the proof profile on which you want to base the gamut warning. (See “Soft-proofing colors” on page 113.)

2Choose View > Gamut Warning. All pixels outside the gamut of the current proof profile space are highlighted.

To change the gamut warning color:

1 Do one of the following:

• In Windows or Mac OS 9.x, choose Edit > Preferences > Transparency & Gamut.

• In Mac OS X, choose Photoshop > Preferences > Transparency & Gamut.

2 Under Gamut Warning, click the color box to display the color picker. Then choose a new warning color, and click OK. For best results, use a color that is not already present in the image.