Why do my colors shift in CMYK (CS1)?

TC
Posted By
Theresa Cano
Nov 28, 2006
Views
622
Replies
22
Status
Closed
Hi- Can someone explain to me why the colors I create in CS1 are converting themselves? eg., I want text in 100% black, but the only way to do that is to use the selective color to get rid of all the other colors, and of course I can only do that with rasterized text. I have text that changes on a regular basis, so it would be nice to be able to keep it live, but I can’t do that and also have the 100% black. Very inconvenient. This happens with every color. Why is that? It never happened in earlier versions, so I’m assuming it’s either a setting or some sort of ‘improvement’. I’d love to know how to fix it anyway, because it’s also happening with the Illustrator CS I have at home, but not here at work.

Thanks!
T

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B
Buko
Nov 28, 2006
I can only do that with rasterized text

wrong.

highlight the text and click the color picker and make 100% black by removing CMY
TC
Theresa Cano
Nov 28, 2006
It’s NOT wrong- I have tried removing the CMY, it doesn’t work. When I sample the text again, it still shows rich black.
MO
Mike_Ornellas
Nov 28, 2006
are you actually working in a CMYK file?
TC
Theresa Cano
Nov 29, 2006
Yes
B
Buko
Nov 29, 2006
then you are doing something wrong.

What? I have no idea.
TC
Theresa Cano
Nov 29, 2006
Okay, so a program I have used for ages has some new setting that is not allowing my colors to stay how they are set, and I’m doing something wrong? Thanks, I’ll just figure it out on my own.
GB
g_ballard
Nov 29, 2006
drag your preferences out to default the app…maybe they’re corrupted or set like that
CB
charles badland
Nov 29, 2006
What do you mean "…not allowing my colors stay how they are set"? At what point do they change? How are you determining the color?
TC
Theresa Cano
Nov 29, 2006
Okay, the default black is 74-71-64-87. If I click on the black swatch in the palette I get the color sliders; I set everything else to zero and black to 100%. If I then click on it again, the color sliders are set to 79-73-68-70, which approximates 100% black. If I type text and then try to change the color to 100% black, it then shifts back to 79-73-68-70. It’s not allowing me to use a single process color, which I really need to do because we print at very small sizes. The only way I have found to maintain that setting so far is to rasterize the text and use selective color to eliminate the CMY. I didn’t have this problem with earlier versions, and I’m not doing anything now that I hadn’t done in the past. And out of the 20 people in my office, ALL of them have the same issue, so I don’t see how I could be doing something ‘wrong’.

Thanks,
T
B
Buko
Nov 29, 2006
Trash your prefs.

highlight(select) the text you want to be 100% K

with the text highlighted click the color picker in the font pallet

make your changes

click OK.
CC
Chris_Cox
Nov 29, 2006
If her document is CMYK, and she used the CMYK sliders in the color palette – then the color should remain as exact CMYK values.

If she goes into the color picker dialog and just use the square picker, that gets an HSB/RGB color and it gets converted through your RGB and CMYK profiles. If she enters numbers in the CMYK boxes, then it will remain as a CMYK color with those exact values.

I just checked this in CS and CS2 – it’s working just fine.
P
PeterK.
Nov 29, 2006
They must all be doing something wrong then, or everyone’s version of Photoshop is corrupt! Make sure you’re on a CMYK document (it says CMYK at the top of your document window), type your text, hilight it, go to your colour sliders or click on the colour swatch in your options bar and change the values to whatever you want, and when you’re happy with the colour click on the checkmark at the top of your options bar to set it.
TC
Theresa Cano
Nov 29, 2006
I have done that, but it doesn’t stay at 100% black. No matter what palette I use to change the color, it still reverts to four-color black.
TC
Theresa Cano
Nov 29, 2006
I guess we’re all doing something wrong, then. Wow, I had no idea that everyone in my office was so stupid. Well, thanks for giving me the heads-up.
B
Bernie
Nov 29, 2006
If you reset the default black and white, you will always get the rich black

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1vdH6FZgP5x58txXtg boXm1QCjo7No>
CB
charles badland
Nov 29, 2006
If I click on the black swatch in the palette I get the color sliders…

Sliders??
You all aren’t by chance using the Apple Color Picker are you? If so stop. Set the color picker to Adobe in your general preferences right away!

(edit: Yep. I just checked, her CMYK numbers listed are those in the Apple Color Picker. And she is right, 100K does not stick. Chris, why the a choice of Color Pickers still even offered?)
P
PeterK.
Nov 29, 2006
I didn’t say anyone was stupid, just doing something wrong. Not knowing how to do something properly doesn’t indicate stupidity, just something that has yet to be learned. So let’s go step by step.
What do you mean by "palette" that you’re clicking on to change colour? The swatches in the default palette may all be rich black, and as Cybernetic pointed out, the little black/white icon resets the toolbar swatch to default (rich black). So which palette are you referring to?
What does it say at the top of your document? (CMYK or RGB) Are you looking at your info palette, which can be set to display CMYK numbers, even if you’re working on an RGB document? There can be many reasons why people are doing things the wrong way.
R
Ram
Nov 29, 2006
Get off the Apple color picker at once, Theresa. It has been broken for years.
CC
Craig_Cheatham
Nov 30, 2006
Theresa
One way to make a colored text (or anything else) Black only, is to use Hue and Sat, click Colorize, and Desaturate 100%. This will take Photoshop’s default black and make it 0,0,0,95, so you might want to Darken your selection while in Hue&Sat.

Also, because Photoshop will always go back to it’s preset rich black, I create a swatch of 100% K and click on that when I need it.

Hope this helps.

Craig Cheatham
JS
John_Slate
Dec 3, 2006
You can take your foot out of your mouth now Theresa.

PS: Be sure to set the blending mode of any 100%K type layers that are over other color layers to multiply.
CB
charles badland
Dec 3, 2006
You can take your foot out of your mouth now Theresa.

I was wondering why Theresa had been so silent regarding the solution to her problem…
CC
Chris_Cox
Dec 3, 2006
(choice of color pickers is still there because some people like the OS picker, and because you can still write pluin pickers)

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