The Info and Navigation Palettes
with No Duff Stuff
The Info palette displays the following information:
When displaying CMYK values, the Info palette displays an exclamation point next to the CMYK values if the color beneath the pointer or color sampler is out of the printable CMYK color gamut.
When you use the marquee tool, the Info palette displays the x- and y-coordinates of the pointer position and the width (W) and height (H) of the marquee as you drag.
When you use the crop tool or zoom tool, the Info palette displays the width (W) and height (H) of the marquee as you drag. The palette also shows the angle of rotation of the crop marquee.
When you use the line tool, pen tool, or gradient tool or when you move a selection, the Info palette displays the x- and y-coordinates of your starting position, the change in X (DX), the change in Y (DY), the angle (A), and the distance (D) as you drag.
When you use a two-dimensional transformation command, the Info palette displays the percentage change in width (W) and height (H), the angle of rotation (A), and the angle of horizontal skew (H) or vertical skew (V).
When you use any color adjustment dialog box (for example, Curves), the Info palette displays the before and after color values of the pixels beneath the pointer and beneath color samplers.
EyeDropper
Double click on the eyedropper toolbox button for the eyedropper options. The options allow you to specify a single pixel sample, a 3x3 average, or a 5x5 average. In most cases, the 3 by 3 average works well. This averages the color of the nearest 3 pixels surrounding the area where you click.
When you select Palette Options you bring up this dialogue box shown on the left. I have found it useful to select Actual Color as the first choice then Grayscale as the second.
The eyedropper can be used in conjunction with the Info palette to read color values from your images. Display the info palette, then select the eyedropper and move it over your image. By default, the Info palette displays the RGB and CMYK values, as well as the X and Y coordinates of the cursor. When making a selection, the Info palette also displays the width and height of the selection. Also the grayscale value is shown in % numbers. This is very useful as it equates to the amount of dot in the shadow, midtones or highlights.
Using the Navigator palette You can zoom in/out using the slider at the bottom and scoll around the image by placing the cursor inside the red box click and hold down then move the box about. The figure at the bottom left is not a percentage but the number of pixels displayed on screen so 100% is the screen displaying 1 pixel for 1 pixel. Its best to adjust images at this view if possible
Clicking on the tiny icon pops up a menu that allows you to change the values displayed in the info palette.
Another thing to notice about the Info palette is that it gives you yet another way to identify colors that are outside of the CMYK gamut. As you move the eyedropper over your image, look at the CMYK values displayed in the Info Palette. When the percent (%) sign changes to an exclamation mark (!) it indicates a color that is out of gamut.
Note: when the image is adjusted by using the levels etc you will get a reading, on the left. This is the before adjustment reading, on the right is what you have now after adjustment, REALLY USEFUL
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