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This is probably a trivial question, however I'm unable to select a given color in Photoshop. I'm using a template in PSD which is set to CMYK and I think that this is the problem.

For example if I try to assign a text the color #00FFFF it automatically sets it to #6FCCDC instead of converting it to CMYK. How can I have the color properly converted so that it looks like a #00FFFF also when printed in CMYK?

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  • There are actually 2 questions here- Your overshadowing the second question whith the other one. The question "so that it looks like a #00FFFF" is actually quite interesting altough it has a 35 page answer. Because it depends on how you define looks the same!
    – joojaa
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 10:35
  • @Mindwin well you can go and read the treatsies of International Color Consortium. Anyway they had a well tought out laymans explanation with a length of about 35 pages (yeah i have a hardcopy) which they seem to have taken down...
    – joojaa
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 15:06
  • @joojaa appreciated. It is really bad they don't have it online anymore. Commented May 4, 2017 at 16:54
  • Related: graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/49523/24627
    – AllInOne
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 21:57

1 Answer 1

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... if I try to assign a text the color #00FFFF it automatically sets it to #6FCCDC instead of converting it to CMYK.

It is converting it to CMYK...

CMYK and RGB have a different gamut, so converting from one to the other will result in color changes. The hexadecimal colors you have there are an RGB notation, so if that color doesn't exist in the CMYK gamut you're converting it to then it has to change.

What doesn't help any of this is the fact that Photoshop's color picker shows you RGB colors regardless, so a bunch of the colors you see in the color picker aren't even available to you in a CMYK document...

Two things...

If you have a color that is "out of gamut", the color picker will show you a little warning triangle to the right of the color (with Photoshop's closest available match underneath), you can click that to get that in-gamut color.

Another thing you can do; with the color picker open, go to View → Gamut Warning. That will grey out any colors that are out of gamut... you then simply only pick colors you can actually see in the color picker and you won't get any nasty surprises with color changes.

enter image description here

How can I have the color properly converted so that it looks like a #00FFFF also when printed in CMYK?

You can't. That color is very far from what is possible with CMYK printing. You can use special inks (e.g. Pantone) but that is a whole other subject...

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    NB there are also colors that do exist in CMYK that can not be chosen by the picker square on account that the color is outside RGB
    – joojaa
    Commented May 4, 2017 at 10:34
  • @Cai why I can't enter colors in CMYK then? However #00FFFF is cyan Photoshop should convert this color to something more similar to it rather than a gloomy #6FCCDC Commented May 5, 2017 at 11:17
  • You can enter colours in CMYK using the inputs at the bottom right. If you're working in CMYK you should really be ignoring the hex color code since that isn't a CMYK color (and may be different depending on where and what is doing the conversion).
    – Cai
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 11:43
  • @Ritardi.Net also, 00FFFF isn't the same as a CMYK cyan, it simply doesn't exist in CMYK... the fact is, converting out of gamut colors isn't a precise process so you're going to get conversions you don't like
    – Cai
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 12:02
  • @Cai is it possible to obtain teal in CMYK? I see posters that are definitely teal and of course printed in cmyk is it just a work with contrast made using nearby colors? Commented May 5, 2017 at 20:38

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