Menus Greyed Out in Photoshop.

[tdgraphics]

Hi,

I am very new to photoshop but I notice that a lot of the menus within the filter drop down are greyed out.

I have been trying to do the following tutorial:

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/diamonds/diamonds.htm

But Filter / Render / Clouds, the Clouds is greyed out.

On Filter / Distort / Glass, the Distort is greyed out, I cannot even see Glass.

Have I set up my version incorrectly or something as I cannot access more than 50% of the filters that are available.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Neil

[Bobby H]

Which color mode is your document based?

Most filters will be available in RGB-based layouts.

Various filters are greyed out if you are working in CMYK, L*a*b, greyscale, duotone or 16-bit per channel operation.

[tdgraphics]

Thanks for that,

Changed to RGB and then 8 bit and all now available.

Thanks again.

[Bobby H]

If you're designing your layout for printed output (like on an inkjet printer, solvent-based billboard printer, etc.) be sure to keep your colors within the gamut range of CMYK. RGB has a wider gamut range than CMYK, meaning a lot of colors in RGB are far more brilliant than printer inks can produce. If your layout is for something computer screen based, such as a web page, don't worry about it. Monitors are RGB-based.

One thing you can do is turn on the Gamut Warning feature (view menu, gamut warning). That will make a lot of out of gamut colors show up with a grey overlay (or whatever warning color you choose for the gamut warning setting).

[tdgraphics]

Thanks Bobby for your comments, much appreciated. What I intend to do, is convert the image back to CMYK before printing.

At present I am trying to find my feet as I only recently purchased Photoshop, I have been mainly in the cut vinyl sign business, but invested in a 54" printer / cutter for a specific job, then I wanted to progress further and purchased Illustrator / Photoshop CS2.

I recently did some work for a auto distributor here in Ireland using Photoshop and they were impressed, I even impressed myself. So I am trying other things now.

Thanks again for the comments, this board seems very helpful to newbies like myself.

Neil