Adobe ships Color mode as a dedicated color workspace inside Premiere Pro beta. It uses a streamlined layout that maximizes the Color monitor, reduces on-screen clutter, and adds dedicated color panels that only appear in Color mode.
Colour mode centres the experience around three pieces: the Colour monitor for evaluation, a Clip Grid for picking shots quickly, and a Colour Controls panel for doing the actual work. The intent reads as editorial-first grading: jump between shots fast, make decisions with the image front and centre, and keep the toolset close to what you already do in an NLE.
Color mode switches the monitor between a sequence view for checking the timeline and a clip view for focusing on a single shot. It also adds a Solo mode that temporarily disables overlays and composited elements so you can judge adjustments without extra layers muddying the view.
The new workspace design lands alongside a clear compatibility message. The Lumetri effect remains available in the beta Effects panel and stays supported. Existing projects and Lumetri grades keep their expected look. The Lumetri panel itself no longer appears in the beta UI, and Lumetri changes move to the Effects Controls panel.
Clip Grid turns your sequence into a grading playlist
The Clip Grid presents clips from the active sequence as thumbnails for quick selection. It supports filtering, sorting, and grouping to keep large timelines manageable while you grade. It also includes view controls that change between a row style layout and a multi-row grid so you can either stay focused on a short run of shots or see more of the cut at once.
Color Controls and Operations aim at repeatable grades
The Color Controls panel acts as the hub for adjustments to the currently selected clip in the Clip Grid. It organises colour operations applied to that clip, and it frames each operation as equivalent to a layer or node of colour tool modifications. That puts grade-building blocks front and centre, with a structure that can scale from quick balancing to more involved looks.
Color mode also introduces an Operations system for grade management, positioned as part of the new experience alongside the interface and control set. Operations appear as the mechanism for managing grades across clips, groups, and sequences.
Color mode also leans heavily on feedback. Many controls activate a heads-up display that combines scopes, numeric feedback, and real-time visual guidance. The goal is to help you understand what a control does while you drag it, instead of making you guess and undo your way back to safety.
That HUD concept matters because many controls are bi-directional. One axis adjusts one parameter and the other axis adjusts a second parameter. There is also a modifier for precise single-axis moves. Each control can surface its own on-screen feedback as you work.
If you already live in scopes, the pitch is simple: fewer trips to separate panels, more continuous feedback while you push the image. If you are newer to grading, the design tries to teach you by making the response visible and measurable while you move.
New controls: from contrast to zones to hue isolation
Color mode adds a set of new control groups and built-in styles and modules. On the adjustment side, the control set includes contrast with contrast and pivot, exposure with exposure and black level, temperature with temperature and tint, balance for shifting color balance, saturation, and a Detail section that covers texture and sharpness. Texture offers global, single, or multi-band detail. Sharpness includes radius and threshold controls, plus blur.
There is a Zones section that grades the whole image globally or isolates grades into shadow zones and highlight zones. Shadow zones and highlight zones support multiple preset zones and custom zones, letting you target darker or brighter parts of the image with separate adjustments.
There is also a Color Shift section with Sat Shift, Hue Shift, and Lum Shift. These controls focus on specific hues, letting you change saturation, hue direction, and brightness for a selected hue range. Automatic Hue Isolation surfaces prominent hues from the image for faster selection, and it also supports an eyedropper plus a full RGB spectrum picker for manual targeting.
Styles and Modules show up as built-in starting points. The system includes modules such as Film Color, Contrast Kit, and Flare, plus style presets such as Cinematic Contrast, Varied Temp, Varied Lighting, Varied Sat, and Monochrome. There is also a Make Your Own path that combines modules to build custom styles.
Color management: SDR and HDR workflows in the same mode
Color mode links directly into the application color management system. It supports workflows that include Direct Rec. 709 SDR and Wide Gamut Tone Mapped. It also supports SDR and HDR output formats including Rec. 709 and Rec. 2100.
Wide Gamut Tone Mapped has more flexibility when adjusting images. Tone mapping aims to create smoother highlight and shadow roll-off, with the benefit of easier exposure and color adjustments without clipping.
There are also updated tone-mapping and gamut-compression settings for handling SDR media and graphics. An advanced option called Apply Inverse Tone Mapping and Gamut Compression targets accuracy when working across mixed media formats. But never change the working color space mid-workflow, since switching after adjustments can alter the appearance of the grade and force extra refinement.
This is the part that can make or break the experience in real projects. Colour management should behave consistently across cameras, codecs, and delivery targets, or editors will revert to what they trust.
Some workflows will still need careful validation on your own media, especially mixed camera jobs and sequences that move between SDR and HDR deliverables. Test new tools and innovations before use in production, and verify the pipeline from ingest to export with footage that matches your real work.
Plans, beta access, and what it costs
Color mode is included in the Premiere beta and it comes with any Creative Cloud plan that includes Premiere, with no additional cost for the feature itself. The beta installs through the Creative Cloud desktop app. New users can start with a 7-day free trial of Premiere. The official product page also states that the Premiere single app plan starts at US$22.99 per month for an annual plan billed monthly. Pricing changes by plan and region…
