PSE and LAB color mode

I use PSE8 to design textiles. Normally my images are put into Index Mode and I specify colors from a LAB color catalogue and send the color specification in an e-mail or Excel file. My printer has asked that I specify the colors directly into LAB mode without indexing. Is there a plug in to do that? Thank You.

LAB is disabled at a pretty deep level in PSE. There are a few plug-ins that will let you simulate the effect you'd get with LAB (one of the settings in the smart curves plugin, for example), but nothing can add the ability truly to understand/render this color space, I'm afraid.

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Conditional actions in Photoshop can't test for Lab color mode.

I’m posting here because the feature request/bug report form isn’t currently working for Photoshop.
I wanted to create an action to determine if the color mode of an image is Lab, and if so, convert it to RGB. But there’s no conditional action test for Lab color mode. The list of conditions that can be tested includes RGB, grayscale, and a couple of other color modes, but not Lab, Does anyone know of a workaround? Can I get it done with scripting?
It would be a big help if the next update of Photoshop CC could include a conditional action test for Lab color mode.

This for example would convert an active Lab image to sRGB:
if (app.documents.length > 0) {
if (app.activeDocument.mode == DocumentMode.LAB) {
app.activeDocument.convertProfile ("sRGB IEC61966-2.1", Intent.RELATIVECOLORIMETRIC, true, true);

Problem Lab color mode in Illustrator CC 2014

What is the best way to choose a CMYK color mode in Illustrator? When I want to import a file from Illustrator to InDesign it will automatically be converted to a Lab color mode and I can not change the CMYK values. All colors from Illustrator are therefore in a Lab color mode. I work with Illustrator CC 2014, thank you very much!

Thank you I think I understand what you mean. I added a Illustrator and Indesign picture to show you what happens. I made a file in Illustrator with the right values and saved it as a eps file. Then I imported in to Indesign and the second picture shows what happens. I never had this problem but since the new CC version I can't change it.

Pros and Cons of working in LAB color mode

I like to use LAB as my color mode. Partially becasue I have a spectrophotmeter and can sample things; partially becasue it is the space which I am most familiar with.
If you pick up almost any ID instruction book, it says "ID has three color modes: RGB, CMYK, and LAB. We aren't going to talk about LAB." I assume that is at least partially due to legacy. However, is there something I am overlooking? Is there a danger to work working in LAB I haven't thought through?
Mostly my work is output to web or print - both desktop and offset - without spot colors.

MarieMeyer wrote:
I seems to me that if I specify colors in LAB and then output to sRGB or Adobe RGB the color is going to be the same - whereas if I had typed in RGB values it will not. (Realizing this is NOT some magic cure for monitors not being calibrated!)
Obviously ID isn't an image editing/generator program, but for brochures and thing I do apply flat areas of colors. If I type in a LAB color that is out of the gamut of the CMYK profile of the working space, I get an OOG warning and can dial it back. What I really like is the speed with which I can adjust the value of the color without changing the hue/chroma by adjusting just the L channel. It is sort of like creating tint swatches, only in reverse!
dylw, I take your point about the number of printers who aren't meticulous. But don't I have the same problem if I'm relying on a swatchbook that provides CMYK values but was printed on a differe paper at a different company than the one that I'm going to use?
When I was a student I used to worry about exact color matching and presume that it could be achieved. Now that I've been out here working in the real world for a few years I understand that perfect color matching, even with good color management, is a myth. Most users don't have calibrated monitors, or even monitors capable of displaying the full gamut of what your eye can see or even what your camera or scanner might be able to capture, and process color gamuts are genereally smaller still. When you go to press you are at the mercy of the press operator, the vagaries of plate making equipment, paper inconsistencies, ink mixing, and even ink brand, not to mention the light sources in use at the press and in your office and where your product is finally viewed by your user, and how those particular inks react to differnt wavelengths.
Even a custom profile is at best a point sample, or an average of many point samples, from a particular run or runs, and is not going to match every sheet that comes off the press. A well-trained eye can probably spot variation in color from one end of a single press run to the other, and even more likely from one run to another. Your spectrophotometer is using a particular wavelength and angle of light to sample your color. Is that the same wavelength and angle that will be used in the client's office under the fluorescents? Has your specrophotmeter aged and drifted?
Color management is about getting good, or even excellent, matching of colors across various output conditions, but there are too many environmental variables to be able to achieve one single "perfect" set of output numbers. All you have to do is grab some output and stand in a doorway and compare what you see in daylight against what you see in room light to demonstrate. The human eye and brain, to varying degrees, recognize certain things as being "normal" colors and will accomodate to tell us, for example, that paper is white, even if it's a bit yellow or gray, until we have a whiter sample for comparison. Further, most of us are incapable of seeing the difference a 1 or 2% density shift on press would produce (and that's pretty close to the tolerance you could hope to achieve in the pressroom), let alone the fractions of percents that we often specify when converting colors.
Lab is a theoretical color space that has no "real world" equivalent, but is extremely useful for translating colors from one real world condition to another. Even if you choose to work "in" Lab, you are at best translating your sampled colors under their specific sampling conditions (which don't match your general lighting) to your monitor space (which may or may not be accurate) and then asking to translate to yet one more output space that probably will not match the real world conditions under which the finished work will be viewed.
What you are doing by specifying the color in Lab is trying to eliminate the source profile, but I doubt you'll get any better output.

Blacked out images in Lab Color mode

This problem relates to Camera Raw 4.5 and 4.4.1. I first noticed this when I
opened a file in Lab color. When it opened the image went black. Also the top thumbnail in the channels panel was black. In RGB mode the top thumbnail
in the History panel is blacked out. This relates to my desktop,my laptop runs just fine with ACR 4.5. BTW my desktop is running XP Home,my laptop is running XP Pro. This seems like the right place to go for help. Oops,almost forgot... ACR 4.3.1 works fine,no problems at all.
Thanks,
Rich Kreidel

You really must get rid of any other copies of the Camera Raw plug-in, especially if the other copy is somewhere in the Adobe folder system. Try using the search feature on your menu, and search for camera raw.8bi and see if you can locate the other copy that way.
Another thing to check would be to open Photoshop and go to Help/About Plug-Ins. Camera Raw should only be listed once. If you see it listed multiple times then that is definitely your problem. Click on the Camera Raw listing(s) to find out what version you have.
This Camera Raw update/installation process has caused a lot of confusion for quite some time. Once you get to understand it, it really is a simple process to update. But all it takes is a little mistake to cause a lot of problems.

When I select the lab color mode, many options are greyed out?

Can anyone help me . When I select Lab color, many options are grey out. The following are greyed out: exposure,vibrance, black and white, channel mixer, and selective color. It worked perfectly the first time I used it but will not work now. Do I need to reset something. I have tried everything I can think of. I use a PC and PS 5.
Thanks for the help.

I'm working on the Mac versions of CC and CC 2014. If I select Lab, those very same options are grayed out.

ACR and LAB Color

Hi, all -
Earlier this year, I was reading Dan Margulis' book on LAB color, and one day when I was making some adjustments in ACR, it dawned on me that the white balance slider is the same (blue => yellow) as the "b" channel in LAB and that the tint slider (green => magenta) is the same as the "a" channel. That got me thinking (too much time on my hands, I guess!)... Is there any correlation between how those sliders work and the LAB colorspace (in other words, are those adjustments in ACR being made using the LAB colorspace, even if the image is in RBG)? Then, I thought some more... and realized that the exposure, recovery, blacks, fill light, brightness, and clarity sliders all seem as though they'd affect only the "L" channel in LAB, which made me wonder even more.
There was no mention of ACR in the book I was reading, and I have not read any of the Real World Camera Raw books (waiting for the latest to come out so I can ask Santa to bring it). Is this just a wild coincidence, or are the ACR adjustments based on the LAB colorspace or color theory?
Thanks!

>the white balance slider is the same (blue => yellow) as the "b" channel in LAB and that the tint slider (green => magenta) is the same as the "a" channel.
Actually no...it's NOT the same. Lab does not use the Kelvin scale to describe the ab channels. Kelvin is based upon a blackbody radiation and is actually blue/amber and the magenta/green is perpendicular to that axis, which is NOT the same as the ab channels in Lab.
Camera Raw uses the Pro Photo RGB chromaticities in linear gamma for its internal color space and while a large set of functions are luminance only, it does that and the HSL corrections based on HSL which also is not the same as Lab.

Few Questions 'bout Printing in Lab Color

I'm a little confused about how LAB color works. I have a document thats currently in CYMK color mode, and I'm having difficulty finding satisfactory colors. I was advised elsewhere to abandon CYMK. I therefore want to convert my image into to LAB color mode. I've read that converting from one color mode to another can cause layers to look funny, however I need to retain some of my layers... Do you guys typically have problems with this? In retrospect I should have STARTED in Lab... Seems that converting from CYMK to LAB wouldn't be as problematic as converting from LAB to CYMK...
The key question is this: will my printer (Epson R800) even be able to print in LAB mode? I thought yes, or at least closely... because it has much more than CYMK to work with... it has these cartridges:
#1 Blue UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge T054920
#2 Cyan UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge T054220
#3 Gloss Optimizer UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Cartridge T054020
#4 Magenta UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge T054320
#5 Matte Black UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge T054820
#6 Photo Black UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge T054120
#7 Red UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge T054720
#8 Yellow UltraChrome Hi-Gloss Ink Cartridge
Finally, in the print screen menu should I be
"letting photoshop manage colors" or letting "printer manage colors"? Do you guys have any other tips on how to tweak printer/photoshop settings/preferences to maximize the accuracy of my colors? Would I possibly be better off just using RGB?
I know my questions are conveyed in a slightly confusing manner, so thank you for your patience reading through them. I really appreciate any insight you guys can give me.
Thanks,
Rich

You can't actually print in Lab mode, although it can be great for certain corrective moves. You have to print in either RGB or CMYK. If you are using the Epson driver for your printer, the print is seen as if it were an RGB device, even though it uses CcMmY and black inks.
To get better color accuracy, you need both a hardware calibrated monitor - so you know that what you see is accurate - and good custom printer profiles, so that the colors are properly converted to the color space of the printer. There is a lot of information both in these Adobe forums and on the web in general about color management and the proper use of profiles, and how to go about it.

Converting from pantone to cmyk color mode in Indesign CS3??

I am working on a business card for a customer, I am using Adobe Indesign CS3.
I use an outside company for the printing job called 4over (4over.com) and they require you use their cmyk pdf print engine so they can do the job properly... Basically to break it down: I am in Indesign CS3, I choose Print, and as the printer I choose their "4over pdf cmyk print engine" so the colors do not convert and the color doesnt change when they use their printers.
4over is telling me my document is in pantone color mode, they can see the pantone color 371C, but not the cmyk values.
How do I change from pantone color mode to cmyk color mode???
if anyone can help me please. I would really appreciate it.
I attached the file I sent to 4over incase that helps anyone answer my question.
Thank you,
Brandon

Before exporting, in the swatch panel, select your Pantone colour, right click and select swatch options. Change the color type to Process and the color mode to CMYK.
If it's a business card and you showed the client a pantone swatch, know that you won't get the same colour results. There's a very useful Pantone book available that shows swatches side by side with CMYK values.
http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=283&ca=1&s=4

Illustrator CS2 Start up - Convert color mode dialog box

Using Illustrator CS2, on opening, the usual loading prescreen appears, after which a dialog box appears showing the following text
"Convert Color Mode"
"The document contains objects using both CMYK and RGB color modes. Illustrator allow only one color mode per document. Which color mode would you like to use? (RGB and CMYK appear as option boxes)"
This dialog box appears every time I open Illustrator, even though I'm not actually opening a document.
I've tried adjusting the Color Settings (Edit> Color Settings) but this hasn't affected the dialog box appearing.
I've checked all the usual sources of help but can't identify any cures.
I want to be able to change this so the dialog box no longer appears as it tends to "hide" behind all the other applications I have open at the time and can be difficult to get to, meaning opening Illustrator is a 5 minute battle.
Any ideas?
Thanks

You haven't messed with the startup .ai files have you?
You might try deleting the ai prefs file (see FAQ), though that might be a reach in this case.

Does Print driver type (XPS V GDI) affect availability of "Color Mode Model" in Publisher 2013 to get CMYK colours

Trying to export a Publisher 2013 file to Commercial Printer standard for our printers. They require CMYK.
In the Publisher 2013 stand alone software - it is possible to change from RGB to CMYK in the "Choose Color Model" area in Info.
But in the server based Publisher 2013 - in Info, the Choose Color Model is not offered :(
Anyone know how to change RGB to CMYK in the server version of Publisher 2013? Thanks
I wonder if the availability of CMYK is affected by what printer driver is installed - XPS compared to GDI
Photos are of the Stand alone Office 2010.

Hi, ...
Since Publisher 2013, you no longer have to choose a color model for your publication. In prior versions of Publisher, several different color modes were supported, with RGB mode for screen and desktop printers, and single, process, and spot color modes
for more specialized, commercial printing cases. We have simplified this in the new version, and now use RGB mode for all cases, enhanced to export additional color information when saving the publication.
You can learn more useful information from this blog:
Regards,
Melon Chen
TechNet Community Support
Just as a quick update, Melon-
Using Office 2010 I went into "Choose Color Mode" and changed to CMYK. Used the pack and go and packed it onto a stick. The Office Administrator then walked it round to the printers, who took a look. Printers are happy as the CMYK and quality (DPI,
etc) is all to what they want.
Based on the high number of posts and threads about the failings of Publisher 2013, and especially the CMYK issues - I guess someone needs to address that as a service pack ;)
Thanks
Mark

I try to insert some images on a website but the images are not in the right color mode. I do not know what to do? and also I have 1200 images to insert so I can not change one after one. So I need to set up an action, but I donot know how to do it... Tha

I try to insert some images on a website but the images are not in the right color mode. I do not know what to do? and also I have 1200 images to insert so I can not change one after one. So I need to set up an action, but I donot know how to do it... Thanks

What is the problem specifiaclly?
If the images are intended for web use I would recommend converting them to sRGB which could be done with Edit > Convert to Profile or with File > Save for Web, but as including a Save step in Actions and applying them as Batch can sometimes cause problems I would go with regular converting.
You could also try Image Processor Pro.
Scripts Page

How to control Color Mode and Resolution for brochure creation?

Hello guys,
I am trying to find some settings within Pages, where I could set CMYK color mode and 300 dpi resolution for my pdf file.
I am creating brochure from scratch, using blank document, because non of brochure templates work for what I need. But I can't find any controls for color mode and resolution set up.
Is there any solution for this?

There has been a lot of discussion in the Pages forum about resolution and some on CMYK.
Much of the discussion has been incorrect.
For the colour handling there is the colour palette
The Apple Colour Palette is the user interface for colour managing vector objects created in Apple Pages such as rules and panels and for colour managing one class of vector objects not created in Apple Pages, namely typographic objects.
Imported objects maintain their colourant model and colour space, if there is one. If there is none, a colour space is assigned and the assigned colour space is saved out into the PDF, opposite e.g. Adobe Photoshop which will colour manage the object in the open editing session, but will then save out the object to disk without the assigned ICC profile if 'Colour Management: Off' is configured.
Therefore, if the imported object is data space CMYK and the colour space device CMYK, the system will assign the Generic CMYK Profile which is equivalent to ANSI CGATS TR001 colourimetry (US SWOP); if the imported object is data space RGB and the colour space is device RGB, the system will assign the Generic RGB Profile which is equivalent to sRGB colourimetry in OS X 10.5 and higher.
In general, always capture and then convert for correction in one of two data spaces with three channels, either ICC colour managed RGB or ICC CIELa*b D50. Then convert to CMYK1, CMYK2, CMYK3, CMYKn from the ICC colour space chosen for correction and archiving. This colour space should be large enough to hold any colours that the output colour spaces can hold.
The Apple ColorSync Utility has a gamut comparison dialogue which is 3D (point, press, and turn the 3D gamut comparison). Use this facility to pick an ICC colour space of reasonable size and shape for correction and conversion into final output. Don't pick sRGB as a quick look will show that it can't hold as input what ISO reference offset can hold as output for pure cyan, let alone hold what a big inkjet can hold in greens, blues, reds and yellows.
The ICC architecture lets the ICC profile for the printed output match out of gamut colours to in gamut colours using the Perceptual rendering intent, as intended in the original architecture from 1995. Adobe internally introduced an inhouse conversion for compatibility with PostScript and as default for PDF, Relative Colorimetric with Adobe Black Point Compension. Relative Colorimetric is in fact a proofing transform, without gamut mapping. Black Point Compensation is a simple linear scaling of the lightness to compensate for the fact that the shadows will be clipped in a Relative Colorimetric conversion.
The other problem is transparency, introduced in the QuickDraw Graphics Extension for Mac OS 7.5. Transparency is not supported in any version of Adobe PostScript (level 1, level 2 or level 3). Transparency is also not supported in any version of Adobe PDF prior to version 1.4 and higher. Therefore, unless the RIP Raster Image Processor is able to accept PDF 1.4 and higher, transparency has to be rendered / flattened which is done in the PDF/X-3 filter of the Apple ColorSync Utility.
The idea in the PDF/X-3 filter (for Adobe PDF 1.3) is that the everyday enduser, after placing ICC colour managed RGB or CIE La*b D50 objects, and after choosing an ICC colour space for objects created in Pages, chooses the ICC colour space for the output condition. The filter accepts both ICC profiles of type MNTR Monitor with data space RGB, ICC profiles of type PRTR Printer with data space RGB, and ICC profiles of type PRTR Printer with data sapce CMYK.
The colourant conversion (RGB to CMYK) and the gamut mapping (out of gamut colours in input colour spaces mapped to in gamut colours in output colour space) is then calculated as per the ICC profile for the output condition. An output condition is the combination of factors that affect how colour is formed: the colour lightness and colour tint of the paper, the colours of the colourants, and the tone value increase. Think of gamut mapping in a good ICC profile as Format 1 kerning in a TrueType font (where your font has state-based kerning for up to 8 glyphs simultaneously).
Below a link to a discussion of how to change the default PDF/X-3 filter the Apple ColorSync Utility. "Wegen diverser Fehler im Mac OS X empfiehlt es sich, wo immer möglich, die PDFs ohne Transparenzreduktion (also auf normalem Weg) über den Befehl Als PDF sichern zu erstellen und das Flattening der Druckerei zu überlassen," that is, pick the plain save as PDF path and leave the transparency flattening to the prepress technician.
Henrik
Reference:
http://www.icalamus.net/tutorials/howtocreatepdfx.php

Scanning Paper Copies of White and Black Photos: in Grey scale or in color mode?

I started to scan old black and white paper photos of my deceased father. He shot most of these photos around 1940. The photos are typically around 9.5cm x 6.5 cm (around 3.7 x 2.5 inches), sometimes they are even smaller. Typically, 4-6 photos are glued on each page of a dark photo-album paper. I do not have available any negatives.
My main objective: enjoy to look at the scanned photos on my 19 inch PC Monitor Display. I can imagine, that I will also print a couple of them in something close to their original dimensions.
For the scan, I am using my home flat-bed scanner (it is a 3-year old Canoscan N676U). I am scanning at a resolution of 300, 400 or 600 dpi. I experimented both with a "grey scale" and a "color (photo)" scans. I am not sure what is better: scan in grey scale? Or scan in color?
Scanning in "Color" results (this is at least my subjective impression) in a little bit more/better contrast. However this results also in some yellow/brown/sepia taint, that I do not like very much (the taint becomes especially disagreeable, if I eventually use the PSE Editor to adjust the lighting). Therefore, after the scan I typically use the PSE V5 Editor "Enhance" --> "Convert to Black and White" to get rid of the yellow/brown taint.
Can somebody make me some recommendations and tell me which one is the better method:
1) Scan with "Colors" and then use the PSE Editor to get rid of color taints? Or
2) Scan in "Gray scale" (which allows me to scan with a greater resolution)?
At this time, I have the impression, that both methods results in more or less comparable results. But I fear somehow, that I might be currently missing some important aspects and that I could regret it much later, at a time where I will not have anymore the originals (they do not belong to me, and I have to return them).
I found the following two contradictory recommendations:
1) In the PSE Forum "Tips, Tools, How-To and Techniques....", in the Topic "Scanned Images", I found following Post:
brent bertram - 11:14am Oct 18, 05 PST (#5 of 6)
AND, even Black & White photos typically benefit from being scanned as a color image, rather than grey scale. You have much more flexibility in editing and adjustments.
2) A Canon Dealer recommended me to scan my black and white images with grey scale, not with colors.
Thank You very much for Your Feedback.

Robert.....
I would go along with the advocates of scanning in colour as it gives you far more flexibility to tweak the colour channels in editor. For your final version you can then either convert to grayscale or,preferably in my opinion, use one of the PSE desaturation methods,and retain the file as RGB.
A very useful source of scanning information can be found at http://www.scantips.com/

Lightroom print mode and Color mode grayed out

Both print mode and color mode selections are grayed out not allowing me to select them. Help

I see you haven't gotten much input so far from the Mac experts...
As a Windows user without an Epson printer myself, I can't comment on why you might have color problems under the covers where the software doesn't seem to be following the chosen settings. However, perhaps I can get you thinking about how to further diagnose the problem...
The obvious thing I see is that you've chosen "Photoshop Manages Colors" in the main dialog, which implies your intent is to shut off color-management in the printer driver itself. So to me the graying out of those settings in this case seems to make sense.
Have you tried a test print using the "Printer Manages Colors" setting?
Also, to try to test whether color-management isn't being turned off in the printer (regardless of what the grayed-out settings show), do you see any improvement if you use "Photoshop Manages Colors" but choose a standard profile, such as sRGB IEC61966-2.1 for the Printer Profile setting?
-Noel

PSE and LAB color mode

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