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How To Use RGB Filters On Grayscale Images

 

If you’re working on grayscale images, you’ll find there are some Photoshop filters that won’t work (they’re grayed out, so you can’t access them). Of course, it’s always the really cool filters, such as Lens Flare and Lighting Effects, that are grayed out. But don’t be dismayed (in fact, be “mayed”) because you can still use those filters—just switch to RGB mode (it’s found under the Image menu, under Mode), apply the filters, then switch back to Grayscale mode. It won’t affect the color of your image because, well, there is no color—you’re working on a grayscale image. Switching to RGB doesn’t suddenly pour color onto your image; your grayscale image will still look grayscale in RGB. When you switch back to Grayscale mode (after applying the filters), you’ll get a warning asking, “Discard color information?” You can safely click OK, because after all, there was no color to begin with.

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1 Comment

  1. Perra Jonasson said on — August 7, 2008 @ 4:31 am

    Thank you. I never thought of that before.

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Getting To The Hexadecimal Code

As you may know, there are hexadecimal codes for the colors used in webpages. Not only does Photoshop know these hexadecimal codes, it can extract them from an image and let you paste them into your HTML code editor. First, press the letter I to switch to the Eyedropper tool, and then hold the Control key (PC: Right-click) and click on a color within your image. A contextual menu will appear where you can choose Copy Color as HTML. Now you can switch to your HTML editor and choose Paste to copy the HTML code into your app.

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