Weird colorspace issues in PhotoshopCS

September 27, 2005 9:59 AM

Weird color space issues in OS X PhotoshopCS: Why does PhotoshopCS change spaces from RGB/8 to RGB/8/CMYK? What does "RGB/8#" or "RGB/8*" mean?

I'm asking this question for my GF. My Photoshop wizardry is about as old as PS 6 or so, and my color space skills have never been all that strong, as I'm a vector artist. I know very little about Photoshop CS, especially on OS X.

If you - the noble AskMetafilter answerer - have any questions to clarify the question I can relay them to her via phone or email. Thank you.

Here is her extended explanation:

Question 1:

I have 2 photoshop documents open on my desktop, MAC OSX, Photoshop CS1

The first I built from scratch, I used photos from an image gallery, photos from the web and text. This flie is going on 2 sides of a vehicle for advertising so I need to flip the image for the opposite side of the truck.

When I do that I get a funky color quality that changes the overall color.

My image file goes from (Logo, RGB/8) to a (Logo, RGB/8/CMYK) The whole color changes and I do not know why. Did I have a CMYK image that wouldn't fall to the RGB value of my file?

Question 2:

Yesterday I opened a file which I created about 2 months ago, I needed to change the TM to a ® mark. I did this with text and saved the image and it changed from (Logo, RGB/8) to a (Logo, RGB/8#) This messes up my color values also and makes the file crap for printing. I seriously have never seen this before until Photoshop CS. And it is causing a real problem for files that other people create and bring to me to print.

I need to know what creates the # or the * at the end of my color info and what can I do to get it off and change the file back to RGB or CMYK only.

posted by loquacious to media & arts (4 comments total)

sounds like profile embedding. check preferences to make sure they're the same between cs1 and 2.
posted by bonaldi at 1:54 PM on September 27, 2005

How would one check the profile embedding? What about the files that I am creating myself on CS1 which are changing from /8 to /8# and /8*? Any ideas?
posted by phytage at 2:38 PM on September 27, 2005

# means the image is untagged, i.e., Photoshop doesn't know what profile to use because the image was saved without profile information, and you have told Photoshop to not color-manage these images.

* means that the document colorspace is different from your working colorspace. This means the image had an embedded profile tag BUT that you have Photoshop set not to convert images to the working profile upon opening them (this is usually good). The * is just a reminder, the image should look "right" as long as you have your proofing set up properly.

/CMYK or whatever at the end means that the indicated proofing mode is being used (i.e. Logo, RGB/8/CMYK is using your preferred CMYK profile for proofing, so you can see how the image might look if, in this case, printed).

I think some of the problems you're having come from having Photoshop open an image with no profile info and either letting it convert the image to a different profile, or letting it assign a profile and tagging the image when it's re-saved.
posted by kindall at 4:41 PM on September 27, 2005

Thanks bonaldi and kindall. I'll follow up with that with my missus.
posted by loquacious at 3:35 AM on September 28, 2005