Choose colors

Photoshop uses the foreground color to paint, fill, and stroke selections and the background color to make gradient fills and fill in the erased areas of an image. The foreground and background colors are also used by some special effects filters.

You can designate a new foreground or background color using the Eyedropper tool, the Color panel, the Swatches panel, or the Adobe Color Picker.

The default foreground color is black, and the default background color is white. (In an alpha channel, the default foreground is white, and the background is black.)

Choose colors in the toolbox

The current foreground color appears in the upper color selection box in the toolbox; the current background color appears in the lower box.

• To change the foreground color, click the upper color selection box in the toolbox, and then choose a color in the Adobe Color Picker.
• To change the background color, click the lower color selection box in the toolbox, and then choose a color in the Adobe Color Picker.
• To reverse the foreground and background colors, click the Switch Colors icon in the toolbox.
• To restore the default foreground and background colors, click the Default Colors icon in the toolbox.

Choose colors with the Eyedropper tool

The Eyedropper tool samples color to designate a new foreground or background color. You can sample from the active image or from anywhere else on the screen.

Adobe Color Picker overview

In the Adobe Color Picker, you choose colors using four color models: HSB, RGB, Lab, and CMYK. Use the Adobe Color Picker to set the foreground color, background color, and text color. You can also set target colors for different tools, commands, and options.

You can configure the Adobe Color Picker to let you choose only colors that are part of the web-safe palette or choose from specific color systems. You can also access an HDR (high dynamic range) picker to choose colors for use in HDR images.

The Color field in the Adobe Color Picker displays color components in HSB color mode, RGB color mode, and Lab color mode. If you know the numeric value of the color you want, you can enter it into the text fields. You can also use the color slider and the color field to preview a color to choose. As you adjust the color using the color field and color slider, the numeric values are adjusted accordingly. The color box to the right of the color slider displays the adjusted color in the top section and the original color in the bottom section. Alerts appear if the color is not a web-safe color   or is out of gamut  for printing (non-printable) .

Although Photoshop uses the Adobe Color Picker by default, you can use a different color picker than the Adobe Color Picker by setting a preference. For example, you can use the built-in color picker of your computer’s operating system or a third-party plug-in color picker.

Display the Color Picker

• In the toolbox, click the foreground or background color selection box.
• In the Color panel, click the Set Foreground Color or Set Background Color selection box.

  The Color Picker is also available when features let you choose a color. For example, by clicking the color swatch in the options bar for some tools, or the eyedroppers in some color adjustment dialog boxes.

Choose a color with the Adobe Color Picker

You can choose a color by entering color component values in HSB, RGB, and Lab text boxes, or by using the color slider and the color field.

To choose a color with the color slider and color field, click in the color slider or move the color slider triangle to set one color component. Then move the circular marker or click in the color field. This sets the other two color components.

As you adjust the color using the color field and color slider, the numeric values for the different color models adjust accordingly. The rectangle to the right of the color slider displays the new color in the top half and the original color in the bottom. Alerts appear if the color is not a web-safe color  or is out of gamut .

Choose a color using the HSB model

Using the HSB color model, the hue is specified in the color field, as an angle from 0° to 360° that corresponds to a location on the color wheel. Saturation and brightness are specified as percentages. In the color field, the hue saturation increases from left to right and the brightness increases from the bottom to top.

Choose a color using the RGB model

Choose a color by specifying its red, green, and blue components.

Choose a color using the Lab model

When choosing a color based on the Lab color model, the L value specifies the luminance of a color. The A value specifies how red or green a color is. The B value specifies how blue or yellow a color is.

Choose a color using the CMYK model

You can choose a color by specifying each component value as a percentage of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

Choose a color by specifying a hexadecimal value

You can choose a color by specifying a hexadecimal value that defines the R, G, and B components in a color. The three pairs of numbers are expressed in values from 00 (minimum luminance) to ff (maximum luminance). For example, 000000 is black, ffffff is white, and ff0000 is red.

Choose a color while painting

The heads-up-display (HUD) color picker lets you quickly choose colors while painting in the document window, where image colors provide helpful context.

Choose the type of HUD color picker

Choose a color from the HUD color picker

Choose web‑safe colors

The web‑safe colors are the 216 colors used by browsers regardless of the platform. The browser changes all colors in the image to these colors when displaying the image on an 8‑bit screen. The 216 colors are a subset of the Mac OS 8‑bit color palettes. By working only with these colors, you can be sure that art you prepare for the web will not dither on a system set to display 256 colors.

Select web‑safe colors in the Adobe Color Picker

Change a non‑web color to a web‑safe color

If you select a non‑web color, an alert cube  appears next to the color rectangle in the Adobe Color Picker.

Select a web‑safe color using the Color panel

Choose a CMYK equivalent for a non-printable color

Some colors in the RGB, HSB, and Lab color models cannot be printed because they are out-of-gamut and have no equivalents in the CMYK model. When you choose a non-printable color in either the Adobe Color Picker or the Color panel, a warning alert triangle appears. A swatch below the triangle displays the closest CMYK equivalent.

Choose a spot color

The Adobe Color Picker lets you choose colors from the Trumatch® Swatching System™, the Focoltone® Colour System, the ANPA-Color™ system, the HKS® color system, and the DIC Color Guide.

To ensure that the final printed output is the color you want, consult your printer or service bureau and choose your color based on a printed color swatch. Manufacturers recommend getting a new swatch book each year to compensate for fading inks and other damage.

Spot color libraries

The Adobe Color Picker supports the following color systems:

Commonly used for newspaper applications. The ANPA-COLOR ROP Newspaper Color Ink Book contains samples of the ANPA colors.

Commonly used for printing projects in Japan. For more information, contact Dainippon Ink & Chemicals, Inc., in Tokyo, Japan.

Consists of 763 CMYK colors. Focoltone colors help avoid prepress trapping and registration problems by showing the overprints that make up the colors. A swatch book with specifications for process and spot colors, overprint charts, and a chip book for marking up layouts are available from Focoltone. For more information, contact Focoltone International, Ltd., in Stafford, United Kingdom.

Used for printing projects in Europe. Each color has a specified CMYK equivalent. You can select from HKS E (for continuous stationery), HKS K (for gloss art paper), HKS N (for natural paper), and HKS Z (for newsprint). Color samplers for each scale are available. HKS Process books and swatches have been added to the color system menu.

Provides predictable CMYK color matching with more than 2,000 achievable, computer-generated colors. Trumatch colors cover the visible spectrum of the CMYK gamut in even steps. The Trumatch Color displays up to 40 tints and shades of each hue, each originally created in four-color process and each reproducible in four colors on electronic imagesetters. In addition, four-color grays using different hues are included. For more information, contact Trumatch Inc., in New York City, New York.