Indexed Color does not look like preview.

[saraf33087454]

I am having a problem with the indexed color option, which used to work great for me. When the indexed color mode option is up and I have preview clicked, the picture looks great, but when I apply the indexed color the picture looks very pixilated.  I cannot find any information about this. Thanks!

[davescm]

Try zooming to 100% and compare preview to actual. They should both look the same at that zoom.

At zoom levels less than 100% you are viewing a preview of the image with any effects not the actual image.

Dave

[saraf33087454]

Thank you, I am trying to get rid of the grainy effect, I want it to look like the preview image.

[davescm]

Hi
I am not sure if you misunderstood me.

You have to zoom in to 100% - then adjust the parameters for indexed colour while looking at the preview. That way you will get an accurate preview and no surprises when clicking on OK. The preview and rendered version will look the same.

Once done accuracy only applies at 100% . If you then zoom out you will see an inaccurate render. That is the way Photoshop works. For many images the zoomed out view is close enough to the actual that you notice no difference but in some cases (such as yours ) it looks very different.

Note - with only 7 colours (as set in your screenshot) it is going to look somewhat posterised.

Dave

[saraf33087454]

Thank you. I tried that, while zoomed in it does look the same, but I changes completely one I zoom out. It used to look like the image in the preview so I feel like I changed something in the settings or something. As I zoom out shouldn't the pixels blend more not less?

[davescm]

I agree that last screenshot looks nasty - it may be worth trying with GPU disabled to see if it makes a difference. Also check whether the tiling setting in Preferences Performance makes any difference.

That said - this may just be one of those cases where the preview which is used to blend at less than 66% zoom shows artifacts that are not in the actual image. There always is a difference but in most normal images it is not visible. It is a price we pay for a speedy screen refresh when viewing a large part of the image

Dave

[Derek Cross]

Presumably you only want to have seven colors (from the choice of up to 256) in your image.

[saraf33087454 · Accepted solution]

I found the answer in a different forum- once you switch the color mode back to RGB the pixilation will go away.

[davescm]

saraf33087454  wrote

I found the answer in a different forum- once you switch the color mode back to RGB the pixilation will go away.

But you are no longer using indexed colour, in which case - why make the round trip?

Dave

[saraf33087454]

It still indexes the color, it makes it look like the preview, and eliminates the pixilation. I am using indexed color to lower and the number of colors used, and input my own colors, and this achieves that. Thank you for your time!