Adobe retroactively dumbing down Photoshop Elements

[Frans Waterlander]

When I bought Photoshop Element 2021, you could choose "Always optimize for printing" in the Color Settings and ACR would assign Adobe RGB to your files. That worked fine for years until recently when I had to reset Windows 11 and reinstall PSE 2021. Now, ACR assigns sRGB. Yes, I can use "Convert Color Profile" after ACR to reset it to Adobe RGB, but I would think that the color gamut was reduced by ACR applying sRGB.

Any body know for sure if the color gamut is reduced by this hairbrained change? And why would Adobe do this, apparently retroactively, in the first place?

Funny enough, when you directly open a jpeg image, without going through ACR, Adobe RGB is assigned to it!

[digitaldog]

https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/723198-adobe-retroactively-dumbing-down-photoshop-elements/#findComment-6036704

[Kyle Jackson]

Hi, caveat I don't use PSE and haven't used ACR (or Adobe Bridge) directly in a very long time since I use a DNG-based workflow (RAW -> Adobe DNG Converter -> Lightroom -> Photoshop optional), but here are some thoughts...

This Adobe forum thread found in the link above seems to have a lot of info about this:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/adobe-rgb-as-default-color-profile-in-elements-2024/m-p/15268079

...which also links to this Adobe Help info for PSE:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/setting-color-management.html

which says (emphasis added):

Always Optimize For Printing

Uses Adobe RGB as the RGB working space; the Grayscale working space is Dot Gain 20%. This option preserves embedded profiles and assigns Adobe RGB when opening untagged files.

The above suggests to me that the files you are opening in PSE are already tagged with sRGB, since it would otherwise assign Adobe RGB to untagged files and files already tagged with Adobe RGB. So if it were me I would first double-check that my ACR settings are indeed set to Adobe RGB (or remain untagged).

If your ACR settings check out but PSE is still opening as sRGB like some other users report, then it seems to me the next best option would be this one:

Allow Me To Choose

Lets you choose sRGB (the default) or Adobe RGB when opening untagged files.

...assuming your files coming out of ACR are untagged.

Otherwise you may want to consider changing software/workflow to something that better suits your needs.

[Frans Waterlander]

Hi, caveat I don't use PSE and haven't used ACR (or Adobe Bridge) directly in a very long time since I use a DNG-based workflow (RAW -> Adobe DNG Converter -> Lightroom -> Photoshop optional), but here are some thoughts...

This Adobe forum thread found in the link above seems to have a lot of info about this:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements-discussions/adobe-rgb-as-default-color-profile-in-elements-2024/m-p/15268079

...which also links to this Adobe Help info for PSE:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/setting-color-management.html

which says (emphasis added):
The above suggests to me that the files you are opening in PSE are already tagged with sRGB, since it would otherwise assign Adobe RGB to untagged files and files already tagged with Adobe RGB. So if it were me I would first double-check that my ACR settings are indeed set to Adobe RGB (or remain untagged).

If your ACR settings check out but PSE is still opening as sRGB like some other users report, then it seems to me the next best option would be this one:...assuming your files coming out of ACR are untagged.

Otherwise you may want to consider changing software/workflow to something that better suits your needs.

Hi Kyle, I've done all that and PSE now does assign sRGB when I open Adobe RGB files. My original PSE 2021 was fine, but a re-install weeks ago screws things up.

[digitaldog]

Otherwise you may want to consider changing software/workflow to something that better suits your needs.

+1 That bug in Elements 2021 will not be fixed. Here's why:
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/whats-new.html
However, a bug that forces sRGB instead of Adobe RGB (1998) on the Elements user base is about as benign a bug as possible. 😆
You are right about upgrading or finding another product: Adobe has a product with Color Management not dumbed down for “big boys”🤣:
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html

[Kyle Jackson]

You are right about upgrading or finding another product: Adobe has a product with Color Management not dumbed down for “big boys”🤣:
https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html

Yup even my short-pants CS5 version still does the job  Just set it and forget it