Since Photoshop was initially designed for graphic artists may options default to what serves that community the best. Through preferences many defaults can be adjusted to make Photoshop more appropriate for use by researchers. This is also an opportunity to configure Photoshop to meet users particular needs, hardware and situation.
The preferences location differs between the PC and the Mac. For the PC they are located under the Edit menu at the bottom of the list. On the Mac they are under the Photoshop menu near the top. If you want to get to them quickly us the keyboard shortcut control K on the PC and command K on the Mac and the preference menu open right up.
Many preference settings are fine for a majority of users. Some will depend on the experience and comfort level of the user and other will be based on the Platform and power of your computer.
Your first choice will control which interface open when you choose a color for the foreground or background, though the color panel and other places where the user can select color.
Photoshop General Preferences CS3 Windows
In Windows you have the choice between the operation systems color picker that has a simple and advanced mode or the Adobe color picker.
Basic Windows Color Picker Vista
Click on Define Custom Colors to open the advanced color selection portion of the dialogue box.
Full Version of Windows Color Picker
Now you have access to the full color spectrum and not just what Window considers Basic Colors. Here you can choose a hue, saturation, and luminance level (consider this intensity). There are direct input boxes for HSL and the amounts of red, green, and blue that make up the additive color space. Once you have the color you want you can add it to the custom colors palette to repeatedly choose that color.
While this is more powerful than the basic Windows control it is still limited as compared to Adobe’s Color Picker.
Whether you are using a Mac or PC you can choose Adobe’s Color Picker Interface.
Adobe’s Color Picker
This option gives you an advanced level of control as well as built in feedback about the colors you choose. What you are picking the color of is displayed in the title bar.
The Adobe Picker displays a live comparison of the current color and the new color. This let you see subtle differences easily unlike the Window’s color picker.
But like Windows you do have a direct select box to pick a color based on hue and saturation. On the right is the ability to choose brightness also considered intensity.
Adobe’s HSB model does differ from windows and is easier to understand. Hue picks which color, Saturation controls how much of the color from none to pure color. Lastly Brightness controls the amount of white or the intensity of the color from full color to white. By using these three parameters the color model can describe the full color range. The range of color able to be displayed depends on your system settings, bit depth and quality of your display device.
Next to the new color and current color box are two warning icons the triangle with the exclamation point is visible if your color is unable to be drawn by your printer. To make it fall into your printers gamut click on it and the nearest printer safe color will be substituted. The cube icon is displayed if your color is not a websafe color. There are only 216 websafe colors and by clicking on that icon a nearby websafe color will be substituted for the color you initially picked. To restrict your color picker option only to websafe colors turn on the Only Web colors box in the lower left hand corner.
The direct numerical input fields are grouped into 5 color models. First is the HSB, consider this also HSI. Hue is based on the color wheel. Different degrees represent different wavelengths of color around a color wheel. Then both Saturation(S) and Brightness(B) can range from 0% to 100%. For Saturation 0% is no color while 100% is the maximum amount or the pure color. Brightness ranges from no white to completely white with absolute white representing the brightest intensity that color can be. To get the exact color it is important to balance these three values.
In research HSI which is HSB in Adobe terminology is often one of the two major color models used to work in color. This is an intuitive way to think about color,. The second way imaging software usually controls color is the RGB color model. Equal amounts of red, green, and blue display a neutral grey. This can range for no red, green and blue represented by three zeros will display black though the range of grays to red, green, and blue equaling 255, in a 8bit depth image, the maximum for each color displays white. This is the additive color space and is the basis for scanners, digital cameras, projectors and all color electronic displays. This color space has advantage in visualizing images and correcting acquisition problems with color or exposure problems.
The opposite of the RGB color space is CYMK the subtractive color model, This is mainly used in printing. In theory equal amount of cyan , magenta, and yellow ink or pigment give neutral grays on paper, When at the maximum of 100% for C,Y,and M black is displayed on the page. The practicalities of paper color, color substrate purity and lighting requires some tweaking of this model by adding a true black(K) or by compensating in other ways. Any color displayed using CYMK is more like a soft proof of what will be actually printed out. For practical understating most consumer printers are based on the RGB and internally convert to CYMK. Office Printers vary and high end printers are usually developed for CYMK input.
Below RGB is a hexadecimal input box for directly entering a color if you know the hexadecimal equivalent. This is useful for selected exact color match for the web.
Last is the LAB color space, also sometimes seen as L*A*B. This color model is a more advance method for selecting color. L is amount of luminance and A and B are two complementary color axis. There are some unique abilities when using this color space. Removing noise and seeing edges without the interference of color are two uses to consider. But in picking a color this is of little use for a researcher.
Adobe keeps custom colors in the swatch panel and you can add a color picked by using the Add to Swatches button.
Photoshop Swatches panel
Color Libraries are provided for graphic artists and are color presenting in families for proper ink selection and display. In general they may be of little practical use but if you are developing color schemes that may be a good place to look.
Photoshop Color Libraries
If you are using a Macintosh you can select Apple’s Color picker. Apple supplies options that are the most simplistic to very advanced determining of actual hexadecimal numbers. At the top are icons representing the various color picking methods. While the controls are more elaborate feedback with Photoshop is limited.
The options are spread out between various control interfaces vs. all being available in a single interface. There is no printer gamut warning or easy selection of nearby safe colors for web or printing. Also a color picked can’t be directly put into the swatch panel.
The complexities and nuances of the Apple color picker will be covered in Part 2.
But to give a quick preview of what you may see if you use the Apple color picker below are the screen shots of the simple crayon style color picker, the HSI color wheel where in the color circle hue and brightness/intensity are controlled and saturation is controlled by the side slider. This is reversed compared to Adobe’s color picker interface. And the last screen shot is the interface to determine not only a full hexadecimal equivalents but the two digit number for each color channel of red, green, and blue if you find that necessary.
Mac OS 10.5 Simple Color Picker
Mac OS 10.5 Color Wheel (HSI)
Mac OS 10.5 Hexidecimal Color Selector
