14: Color Modes & Settings

Photoshop Examples of different color modes

Different color modes:

  1. RGB mode (millions of colors)
  2. CMYK mode (four-printed colors)
  3. Index mode (256 colors)
  4. Grayscale mode (256 grays)
  5. Bitmap mode (2 colors)

The color mode or image mode determines how colors combine based on the number of channels in a color model. Different color modes result in different levels of color detail and file size. For instance, use CMYK color mode for images in a full-color print brochure, and use RGB color mode for images in web or e-mail to reduce file size while maintaining color integrity.

Working space options

To display working space options in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, choose Edit > Color Settings. In Acrobat, select the Color Management category of the Preferences dialog box.

Note:

To view a description of any profile, select the profile and then position the pointer over the profile name. The description appears at the bottom of the dialog box.

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RGB Determines the RGB color space of the application. In general, it’s best to choose Adobe RGB or sRGB, rather than the profile for a specific device (such as a monitor profile).    sRGB is recommended when you prepare images for the web, because it defines the color space of the standard monitor used to view images on the web. sRGB is also a good choice when you work with images from consumer-level digital cameras, because most of these cameras use sRGB as their default color space.

Adobe RGB is recommended when you prepare documents for print, because Adobe RGB’s gamut includes some printable colors (cyans and blues in particular) that can’t be defined using sRGB. Adobe RGB is also a good choice when working with images from professional-level digital cameras, because most of these cameras use Adobe RGB as their default color space.

CMYK Determines the CMYK color space of the application. All CMYK working spaces are device-dependent, meaning that they are based on actual ink and paper combinations. The CMYK working spaces Adobe supplies are based on standard commercial print conditions.

Gray (Photoshop) or Grayscale (Acrobat)    Determines the grayscale color space of the application.

Spot (Photoshop)    Specifies the dot gain to use when displaying spot color channels and duotones.