MY CARTHow to Use the Color Panel in Photoshop: Video Lesson
This video lesson, titled “Learn How to Select a Color Using the Color Panel in Adobe Photoshop: A Training Tutorial,” shows you how to use the Color panel in Photoshop. This video lesson is from our complete Photoshop tutorial, titled “Mastering Photoshop Made Easy.”
Overview of the Color Panel in Photoshop:
You can select a color in Photoshop by using the Color panel. To toggle the Color panel on or off in Photoshop, select “Window| Color” from the Menu Bar. The Color panel in Photoshop shows icons for the foreground and background colors at its left side.
How to Select the Foreground Color or Background Color in the Color Panel:
To select either the foreground color or background color to set its color in the Color panel, click it to select it. To the right of the foreground and background colors in the Colors panel are the color sliders, color values, and color fields that you use to select or enter color values for the selected foreground or background color, much like when using the “Color Picker” dialog box. In fact, you can double-click either the foreground or background color in the Color panel to also open the “Color Picker” dialog box, if desired.
How to Choose a Color Selection Method:
To choose the color selection method to use within the Color panel in Photoshop, click its panel options menu button in its upper-right corner. Then select the desired color selection method from the choices in the top section of the drop-down menu that appears.
Then use the color sliders and color field for the selected color selection method at the right side or top of the Color panel to select the color for either the selected foreground or background color. If the color selection method shows color sliders that accept numeric values, you can also type the values for each color component into the associated fields, if desired.
How to Select a Color Gamut in the Color Panel:
If you select one of the “Sliders” color selection methods, like “RGB Sliders” or “CMYK Sliders” from the top of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the Color panel’s options button, you can then also change the color gamut that appears in the color field below the color sliders in this panel.
To change the color gamut shown in the color field below the selected set of color sliders, click the Color panel’s options button in its upper-right corner. Then select which gamut of colors to show in the color field by selecting a choice from the third section of the drop-down menu that appears. Your choices include “RGB Spectrum,” “CMYK Spectrum,” “Grayscale Ramp,” or “Current Colors,” which shows a gradient of the current foreground and background colors. To toggle showing only web-safe colors within the selected color field’s color gamut on or off, select the “Make Ramp Web Safe” command from the drop-down menu.
How to Select In-Gamut and Web Safe Colors in the Color Panel:
Like the “Color Picker” dialog box, if you select a color outside the printable CMYK color gamut in the Color panel, an exclamation point icon and color square appears next to the selected color in the Color panel. If desired, to select the nearest in-gamut printable color to the one you selected, you can click the exclamation point icon or its color square. However, unlike the “Color Picker” dialog box, you cannot show the Gamut Warning within the Color panel when selecting colors in it.
Also, if using the “Web Color Sliders” color selection method, you may also see a small cube icon and color square appear next to your current color if you select a color that is not web safe. If desired, to select the nearest web safe color, click the cube icon or its square.
How to Copy a Color’s HTML or Hex Code:
After setting the selected foreground color or background color within the Color panel, you can then copy HTML code for the selected color’s hexadecimal value or simply copy its hexadecimal value only. To do this, click the Color panel’s options button in its upper-right corner. Then select either the “Copy Color as HTML” command or the “Copy Color’s Hex Code” command in the drop-down menu, respectively. When you then paste the copied element, it then pastes either the “color” HTML attribute and color value (e.g., color=”#ffffff“) or the hexadecimal color value without the number symbol (e.g., ffffff), respectively.
