Sounds like you’ve toggled the real color "Picker" – what about clicking on the "Swatches" tab?
Alpha:
I knew it was something simple … ususally is. Where in the tunket do I find that tab. I found the dialog box with styles, color and swatches. Maybe it’something in the water.
Thanks!
Joe
LOL. Try Window>Swatches and then drag the Swatches palette back up to other color tabs to nest it or to another spot on the screen where you’d like to dock it.
This is another huge thing imo PS has going for it over other programs I’ve used, true flexibility over setting up the workspace. I mean real flexibility.
Btw once you’ve got the palette back where you want it – try Window>Save Workspace and give your set-up a name. If ever anything goes awry again you’ll always be able to call things back up the way you want it.
Adam.
Adam:
Thanks for your yeoman assistance from your new friend in LA (Lower Arkansas).
Kindest Regards,
Joe
I know the trail has probably grown cold on this topic, but I thought I would jump in. We are having what sounds like the same problem with the color picker on one of our Windows machines here in the office. The picker has stopped displaying the full spectrum of RGB colors. Joe’s description of the problem is perfect.
Alpha: Not sure what selecting the Swatches palette has to do with this. We need to fix the picker.
We’ve checked the preferences setting (it is correct), restarted, rebooted, etc., all the usual stuff. No luck.
Is there a preferences file in Photoshop/Windows that we can toss out to fix the problem? I’m a Mac guy, myself, and that’s what I’d do at this point. Not sure where to look for the prefs file (if there is one) on Windows NT.
Cheers,
Steve
Hold on, before you go re-installing anything, let’s check something out.
In the color picker, you have the choice of various display methods – it defaults to Hue, in the HSL section.
If it’s set to ‘L’ in Lab, you will get a vastly different preview.
What setting is the color picker on?
Redo your display profile, as explained in the FAQ.
Jason, thanks for the quick response. That sounds like the setting I’m looking for. Where is it? We’re using PS 6.0.
Chris, this isn’t a calibration problem. It’s the color picker.
Steve
Steve – if the Adobe color picker is showing, then it has to be a color calibration problem or an RTFM problem.
Your choices are: the display profile is bad, your color preferences are bad, or you clicked on a different color channel as the main channel and failed to read the instructions about how that works.
Chris,
Thanks. But this was not a calibration issue. It was as Jason said: simple human error — the user had accidentally clicked the wrong radio button in the picker — and I didn’t see it for what it was.
It happens in the best of homes, whether you RTFM or not.
Steve
Often times I get chastised for it – but I usually try with the simplist possible solution first.
Glad it was that easy!