The Color Table command lets you make changes to the color table of an indexed-color image. These customization features are particularly useful with pseudocolor images—images displaying variations in gray levels with color rather than shades of gray, often used in scientific and medical applications. However, customizing the color table can also produce special effects with indexed-color images that have a limited number of colors.
To shift colors simply in a pseudocolor image, choose Image > Adjustments, and use the color adjustment commands in the submenu.
You can edit colors in the color table to produce special effects, or assign transparency in the image to a single color in the table.
To change a range of colors, drag in the table to choose the range of colors you want to change. In the Color Picker, choose the first color you want in the range and click OK. When the Color Picker redisplays, choose the last color you want in the range and click OK.
The colors you selected in the Color Picker are placed in the range you selected in the Color Table dialog box.
Choose Image > Mode > Color Table.
Choose Image > Mode > Indexed Color. In the Indexed Color dialog box, choose Custom from the Panel pop-up menu. This opens the Color Table dialog box.
Custom
Creates a palette you specify.
Black Body
Displays a palette based on the different colors a black body radiator emits as it is heated—from black to red, orange, yellow, and white.
Grayscale
Displays a palette based on 256 levels of gray—from black to white.
Spectrum
Displays a palette based on the colors produced as white light passes through a prism—from violet, blue, and green to yellow, orange, and red.
System (Mac OS)
Displays the standard Mac OS 256-color system palette.
System (Windows)
Displays the standard Windows 256-color system palette.
You use the Save and Load buttons in the Color Table dialog box to save your indexed color tables for use with other Adobe Photoshop images. After you load a color table into an image, the colors in the image change to reflect the color positions they reference in the new color table.
You can also load saved color tables into the Swatches panel.
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