Specifying Lab color in Photoshop

I need to submit Indexed TIFF files to my Textile Printer based on their printed color catalogue. I can not get Photoshop CC to keep the specification. Ex: My existing TIFF file has a color specified at: 40, 1, -41. I need to change it to 82, -35, -61. When I save, exit and then reopen the file the color looks the same but the color specification changed to 82, -39, -28. It maybe close but I have no idea how this will print. How can I keep the specs I need?

I make my designs in RGB then do the color reductions by indexing. Now I need to convert to LaB but they have to specific colors from a printed color pallette from the printer. This way I will know how the color will look once it is printed, A particular color is scattered all over the design - imagine a Jackson Pollock like painting that has to be reduced to say 8 colors and is 54" wide by 36 inches. I have to make sure that each color comes from the Printer's palette.

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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);

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.

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.

The basics on how to handle profiles correctly when working with LAB colors?

Hello,
I need to incorporate several blocks of color into an InDesign document. I have the colors in a list as LAB values. The document will be printed, and I have the profile for the printer/paper combo we plan to use.
Would one of you be willing to walk me through the Working Space, Color Management Policies, and Assign/Convert Profile setings that I should use to get the best result?
And, specifically - assuming I am using the Color Panel - not swatches - to color in the blocks: What settings should I use inorder to allow me to rely on the provided "out-of-gamut" warning to alert me if I am attempting to use a color that won't print correctly? I don't care if it is out-of-gamut for the purposes of my display - it is whether it is out-ouf-gamut for the purposes of printing that I want to know about.

Do the LAB colors look the same on the monitor regardless of which RGB
you are using? For example, if I switched from sRGB to Adobe RGB, would
the colors which had been specified in LAB still look the same?
Yes. But keep in mind using Lab doesn't let you get around having a well calibrated and profiled monitor. Lab is device independant so it doesn't have a profile, but in order to display it needs to be converted into your monitor's RGB space via your monitor profile, so the accuracy of your monitor profile is important if you are relying on the soft proof.
Is that what is called "Convert to Profile" in InDesign?
When you export to PDF you have the option to force all colors into one destination space (or not). In the Output tab of the Export dialog you can set your Destination to your printer's CMYK profile and the choose Convert to Destination as Color Conversion. That setting will convert your Lab colors to CMYK during the export. Convert to Profile... in the Edit menu let's you convert document RGB or CMYK colors from one RGB or CMYK space to another. It would have no effect on Lab colors.
Is the out-of-gamut warning only for CMYK?
Yes, it's using your document's CMYK space as the gamut
So if I specify a color using LAB which is out-of-gamut for the RGB
space I am using but in-gamut for my CMYK profile, I will NOT see a
warning?
Right. That would be unusual, but the Lab value for 100% cyan in your printer's CMYK space is likely out of gamut to any RGB space. But your destination is CMYK so that's the gamut you care about.

Need lab color info in Camera Raw.

I would like to be able to see lab color info in addition to the RGB numbers in ACR. The ACR color correction sliders are lab in nature, and the lab numbers are easier for color correction than the RGB numbers.
I

Thanks for the reply. No, I don't have a painting background, so your comments concerning layered transitions are new to me, at least in the analytical.
I have a great deal of problems with color names. The huge array of oils, watercolors and such in an arts supply store with their fanciful names put me to rout! While I do explore the emotional side of camera work, knowing the numbers is equally important because of my long years in electrical engineering. I know, for instance, that the perception of a certain color is influenced by it's surrounds, sometimes profoundly. So, when I am looking at what appears to be a white reference, I want 120,120,120, or whatever the value is. I may not stay there, many times I don't but I know where things are headed.
I can't imagine that my D90 or D80, for that matter, cannot see aqua. That would mean all the cameras Nikon produces using the D90 sensor have this problem.
Did I see aqua? Back to nomenclature. What is aqua? Aqua means among other things water. Aquarius means water bearer.Here is one dictionary's set of definitions. Look at the Thesaurus. All those names are the same? Greenish blue is the same as bluish green?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/aqua
I'll not likely ever be a painter. Painters, like musicians know these terms. Music is filled with them with plenty of overlaps. I can listen to a pice of music never heard before and get within one semitone of it on the piano first try. But I don't have perfect pitch. So I assume if I were to take up painting and devote the next 10,000 hrs or so to developing that skill, I may indeed recognize the subtle colors by name.
Aqua= greenish blue. Well, I thought cyan was greenish blue, but there is no equivalency between the two as applied in Photoshop.. For me anyway.
I've seen that blobiness myself, Tim. Next time I'll go deeper into it Thanks.
Jeff, if you are reading this and have gotten this far, let me say this about "experience" and "creditability" First off, you know I have experience in software testing. Never in my work did I ever have someone prove his point by pulling rank. Never. Software people get pretty deep into the subject. I am certain that TK and others worked HSL over quite thoroughly. The Orange and the Purple sliders do give me a freedom to finesse as never before, and I revel in it. But if your folks are anything like the people I worked with, someone winds up keeping them honest and away from wishful thinking, which gets more and more necessary with which to deal as release approaches. My job was, besides the technical validation work like smoke test etc, was to also inform them when the emperor is losing his clothes. What was nice about it is that we, the validation group, had the power to stop on a dime, and force a resolution. So I have no compunction in speaking up here.
Nor am I concerned about being vetted by you. It's not the first time I have been confronted by people here saying "Do you know who he is?" as if I should never dare to be so outspoken. My answer is yes, but do they know who I am?
One really can't know, and vetting all your responders takes way too much time and bandwidth. So, assume some experience and creditability is where the best in the world have always proceeded, like Einstein.
Lawrence

Does Illustrator CS5 support LAB colors

Hi,
Newbie question.
Does Illustrator CS5 allow colors to be speficied using their LAB values? I have CS4 and know that it doesn't.
If CS5 does, and if I have my RBG and/or CMYK "Working Spaces" set up correctly in "Color Settings", can I expect the LAB values to be converted correctly when I output my illustration to screen or page?
Also, out of curiousity - are there any other major software programs commonly used by designers, photographers and graphic artists that don't allow you to enter colors by their LAB values? Any that don't allow you to edit your "Color Settings" or RBG and CMYK "Working Spaces"?

Illustrator allows lab values, you have to define this as a spot color first.
You can specify spot colors in lab, but you cannot make seperations in LAB, as they will be spot.

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.

How do I print accurate colors with Photoshop CS4 and Yosemite?

I recently upgraded to OS 10.10, Yosemite. I can no longer get accurate colors printed for photos from Photoshop. I have Photoshop CS4 and I use an Epson Stylus Photo R2400 printer. I am able to use Photoshop for everything but printing accurately. I downloaded all recommended drivers for the printer, reloaded profiles for the printer and even tried a trial of Photoshop CC. Nothing resolves the problem. My prints look kind of solarized. Black and white photos have green areas where there should be black. Please help.

I thought my problem could be Lightroom is in ProphotoRGB color space, and my printer is Adobe1998 color space. To test this, I changed the color space of my patches from prophoto to AdobeRGB. I checked my colors in Photoshop, and made them match the RGB number I specified. It was interesting to note that (128,128,255) had a noticeable shift to purple. the other colors shifted slightly. Now I printed the test page with Lightroom managing color and the printer managing color. Both images came out similar.
This study came about when I was printing some images, and the sky had a definite purple shift. So, I took the image into Photoshop and converted the colorspace from prophoto to Adobe. Printed the image, and the image came out much better.
So the question now is, do I need to convert each image I print in Photoshop, or am I doing something wrong in Lightroom?

Lab Color Range

Hi
In Photoshop the a and b values in Lab color range from -128 to 127, but on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color#Range_of_L.2Aa.2Ab.2A_coordinates) they are -0.86 to 0.98 and -1.07 to 0.94 respectively. Is this just a usability thing in Photoshop? Can I plot the Photoshop values on a graph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CIExy1931.svg) by using ratios to convert the values?
Thanks!
Chris

Hello Chris,
What are you trying to do? Do you want to get into all the math and complexities of 3 dimensional space and Euclidean Distances or are you interested in understanding and using LAB for practical purposes. If it's the latter, then there are a lot of tutorials floating around and the Photoshopper's bible on lAB - a book by Dan Margulis called "The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the World's Most Powerful Color Space". If however you want to get into all the math and science, you would probably be better off checking out the CIE org.
Regards, MM

What happens to LAB color when exported to cmyk

I have a workflow at work that goes like this: We work color in Photoshop in Adobe RGB (1998) and convert to our cmyk space only upon output. I've found that, in many cases, I like to work in L*a*b. What happens when an LAB images is placed in InDesign and exported to a pdf to our cmyk space? Thanks!

InDesign can place PSD and TIFF files which are in the LAB color space.
What happens when you export to PDF depends on which PDF preset you use. If you choose PDF/X-1a, the Lab color will be converted to the working CMYK color space (by default US Web Coated SWOP v2, same as in Photoshop). You can test this by examining the resulting PDF in Output Preview in Acrobat 8 Professional or Acrobat 9 Pro.
If you chose PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4, the color would be unchanged and the PDF would still have the image in LAB color space with the LAB profile that Photoshop created.

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.

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.

How to change background color in photoshop cs3

how to change background color in photoshop cs3
Please help me...

Background for what? You need to explain better and be more specific.
Mylenium

Suddenly unable to print in color from photoshop

Just put in new print cartridges (both b&w and color) in my HP officejet printer and I suddenly can't print color from photoshop. I'm using a mac os x 10.8.
I seem to be able to print color from other sources such as directly from the internet, or from preview. When I go to Print in photoshop if I try to select Color Matching ColorSynch and Vendor Matching are greyed out and unselectable. Not that I ever had to go there before but that seems to be the only difference between the print dialog boxes in photoshop and the other sources.

You should contact Microsoft for Mac Support and/or post in their forums.

Specifying Lab color in Photoshop

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