I open a new canvas in Photoshop and set a canvas background color. I'm using Adobe RGB color space (though I have also tried it in sRGB, with the same result). When the canvas comes up, and I check it with an external color picker app (ColorPix), it is not showing the same RGB values that I assigned. The ColorPix app is accurate on all the other web design programs I use. I am creating a web header and need the color to match the other colors on the website. I have checked the problem on other computers and in other browsers, and it remains. What Photoshop creates is off from what I tell it to create. Now this is not a browser issue… within Photoshop itself, as soon as the canvas comes up on my monitor, and I check it with the ColorPix app, it gives me a different hex and RGB values than what PS says it is.
(The color chosen in PS e3f0c4 = 227,240,196, but the color that shows on my screen – and other screens – is defsc5 = 222,245,197). It does this consistently, over and over.
What gives? How can I make a background canvas that SHOWS the same as what PS says it is (but which actually is different)?
Best Answer
This is down to Photoshop's colour management.
Try setting 'Proof Colors' to 'Monitor RGB' (which effectively switches off colour management - or at least displays colours as on a non colour managed display) and you should get your named values (E3F0C4) from external measuring software.
then
N.B. If you look at the internal colour measurement via the 'Info' panel, the value stays the same whatever display setting (Proof sRGB, etc.) you are using.
With Photoshop and other photo editing software one aim of colour management is to allow you to work on images that contain colour values that cannot be displayed on your monitor (or in a print) while preserving the relationships between colours.
Although this means that a specific 'colour' that you've input by value may not give you the numbers you expect when measured from an external application, it helps to remember that that specific 'colour' will display differently on other users' monitors and devices (and in print) and that without colour management the numeric colour value is only really meaningful in your specific context.