Color Management

I understand color profiles as translators of the image data for the device to show as it shoudl appear (to me, the human eye)Why not apply this translation as a conversion (profile tells how the color values shoudl appear, right?) and done with it. Then the monitor should use it's profile to show the file correctly.The whole idea of "working space" or choosing/applying a profile to an image seems only to apply this translation (the profile).Why ask? Or why even have an image + profile, when one can simply do image x profile = a single profiled origianl image? In RAW conversion is this not what we are doing? And if so, why have the profile name attached to the file, when it is already converted?Or did I got it all wrong? When I think I get it, soon I start to see - may be I am not getting it

I'm stumped trying to understand how to use Acrobat's View> Tools> Print Production> Convert Colors settings.I simply want to Convert all tagged elements to a single Destination profile.I created this control set of 10 PDI images (in one PDF) of five color spaces (five tagged/untagged pairs):gballard.net/photoshop/pdi_download/PDI_Color_Profile_Test.pdfThe control file displays as expected: untagged are Assuming sRGB (for lack of a better term) and tagged are being Converted to Monitor RGB.I made my two most obvious guesses at the settings (see below), but both appear to be wrong (a sucessfull Conversion would at least display all the tagged elements the same, correctly, yes?).Any idea what I may be missing?

The default/generic CMYK of choice is described as U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2. That is also the CMYK space inclued in the North American General Purpose 2 sychronized color setting in Bridge.But - if you download the folder of ICC profiles from the Adobe website, there is no such file inside. There is one called USWebCoatedSWOP.icc.  Is that the same thing?Also, can someone tell me where the ICC profiles that shipped with my Creative Suite programs reside on my hard drive? I'm using CS4 on a Mac.

HelloI've been designing printed materials for a while now. In the past I always used to convert my images to CMYK in Photoshop before sending a job to print, because usually I would be supplying packaged artwork (Pagemaker/Quark/Indesign) to my printer.These days however, 99% of the time I would be supplying a print-quality PDF exported from Indesign. I understand that with the right settings, Indesign will convert the images from RGB to CMYK when exporting, making the resulting PDF suitable for 4-colour printing. Out of habit though, I still convert the colour space of my images manually in Photoshop before exporting.So my question is, is there any advantage in doing the colour conversion manually using Photoshop? Obviously this process is time-consuming, and also reults in twice the number of images assuming that you save a copy of each image (the CMYK files have larger file sizes as well). Does it make any difference to the 'quality' of the images in the final PDF? And therefore do

Hi all,I am creating a document in Indesign with many images and lots of colour and I want to create a low resolution pdf for the web which keeps as much of the colour as possible.At the moment all the images are RGB. Should I change them to CMYK in Photoshop or do that when I pdf the document?I will also be creating a high resolution pdf for print, however I do not know where it will be printed therefore I don't have any colour profile information from the printer, so I just need a good general profile to use.Can anyone assist with information, it would be greatly appreciated.Many thanksJuliette

Hi! I'm new here. I need to translate 4 rgb/CMYK values to PANTONE codes (preferably those that ends with TPX, otherwise those that ends with C). A friend has told 100 times to me how I am suppouse to do it, but I do not understand properly. Is there a good soul out there that could do this to me? The colors are: 1) CMYK 0,272 / 0 / 0,043 / 0,078 RGB 171 / 235/ 225 2) CMYK 0,977 / 0 / 0,954 / 0,314 RGB 4 / 175 / 8 3) 0 / 0,924 / 0,987 / 0,075 236 / 18/ 3 4) CMYK 0 / 0 / 0 / 0,302 Thank you soooo much! Ami

Hi thereHoping someone can help me.  I have a cd cover going to print on Monday, ive designed it in photoshop and illustrator cs5.  It looks fine on screen and prints out fine from these programs but when i pdf it the colours go so dark you can barely make it out.  Pdf looks fine on screen, its only when i print.  Theres no way i can send it when its printing out like this!  I have tried pdfing from illustrator and photoshop and the colours print as badly on both. I think this is the first time i have printed pdf from CS5.  I have been up all night trying to work out whats going on.  Ive tried printing out old pdf files created in CS3 and they are printing ok.  Please could someone give me some advice, im going crazy!ThanksLisa

I am not a graphic designer by training but just started a job which requires me to get up to speed (and fast!) on creating collateral from scratch all the way to printing. As you can probably imagine, I've been reading forums, books, and watching video tutorials to learn as fast as possible. That said, I still don't have a definitive answer for the following questions:When creating documents that will be posted online and printed:Should I create it in a RGB or CMYK color profile? RGB has a wider color gamut than CMYK…so is it just safer (for consistency) to always create documents in CMYK color profile (and convert to RGB for online PDFs later...or is it even necessary to convert?)? On the other hand, RGB is able to show pictures more vibrantly...so is it better to create documents in RGB and convert to CMYK for print? What about out of gamut colors (do you have to adjust "by eye" to get it as close as possible)?Can you be in a situation where you have a CMYK document profile but the

HelloI just ran Spyder4Pro calibration on my monitor for the first time. I am using a PC.Monitor Specs: Dell SP2309W2048*1152 Pixel Resolution 23 LCD DisplayVGA,DVI,HDMI connectivitieson NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460Photoshop CS5 ExtendedI have my monitor Brightness set to 90 and Contrast set to 79.After I ran the calibration, I titled the profile June2012Now when I open an image in Photoshop, for the most correct coloring, do I set the Proof Setup to:-- Custom: sRGB Display Profile with display hardware configuration data derived from calibrationOR-- Custom: June2012 (as of now, this is what images are opening up as automatically in Photoshop)OR-- Custom: sRGB IEC61966-2.1OR-- Custom: Document Profile - sRGB IEC61966-2.1(Or another option?)And then if I want to preview how it will be viewed online when I save my photo for web use, which profile can I preview it in?THANKS!!

I am designing a file in Illustrator that will be printed on an inkjet printer - should I be designing and saving this file in RGB or CMYK mode given that it will primarily be printed on a home printer?

I'd be grateful if anyone could give me the name of a link for downloading an icc profile for AbobeRGB1998. Adobe's website directs Linux users to the following link, which is dead (and serves as a good illustration of why many of us have switched to Linux and open source, to avoid having to deal with Adobe whenever possible): http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/iccprofiles/icc_eula_unix_end.htmlMany thanks.

More a question than a discussion.Just started with ADOBE INDESIGN 5.5 and created a document of 160 pages in 30x30 com format to be printed with Blurb later on. My images are in sRGB (or ADOBE-RGB) where the color "Black" is defined as RGB 0-0-0 (and translated into C91 M79 Y62 K97 in InDesign). As background for the image in full spread in InDesign, I use the swatch "Black", defined as C0 M0 Y0 K100. However, when I print the document for proof in PDF, the CMYK background is "grey" and the RGB image really black. What is the reason???I went somewhat further in my test to find out the reason...When I open the PDF proof document in Adobe Photoshop 5.1 and I check the colors, the swatch Black C0M0Y0K100 (added InDesign)  has been translated into R34 G34 B33 / C75 M65 Y62 K82.So I have two blacks, the C91 M79 Y62 K97 (R0 G0 B0) from the placed image,  and                     &nbs

Hi,I'm using Indesign to create newspaper. When I export the document to a PDF file, it is not CMYK, RGB only looks like.What can I do to create pdf in CMYK color to print? I already tried all compresions in export settings, but nothing changed.[sory for my languade skill..]

By default, Lightroom uses the Pro Photo color space "with the same gamma curve as sRGB," according to something I read somewhere. Now Pro Photo is a very wide color space, wider than any monitor can display - even my wide-gamut (Adobe RGB) monitor. If I adjust the color in an image to very high saturation, then at some point in the adjustment I must reach a part of Pro Photo that cannot be displayed on my monitor so I would expect to stop seeing any changes after that point. Yet I continue to see changes all the way up to saturation 100. So this has something to do with the sRGB curve that is somehow mapping those out-of-gamut colors to something that can be displayed.I'd appreciate some explanation of this process, or any useful links.Thanks.

Hi, To start,I have calibrated my dell monitor with eye-one pro as well as my epson 7800. i am running vista 64 bit on my PC... When i use photoshop (CS3 or CS4) the images look fine on the screen and come out really dark on the printer. When i use lightroom, the images look fine on the screen and fine on the printer. Any guidance on how to "fix" photoshop would be appreciated. By the way, in photoshop print dialogue, i color manage the document, photoshop manages the color, the printer profile is set to the I-1 custom printer profile, rendering is perceptual, and black point compensation is checked. Thanks, Joe

HelloI have a RBG color that I need to convert to RAL. The color is:R: 60G: 184B: 0I've been googling a lot about this and the closest RAL color i found was RAL 6018. But this one doesn't match perfectly to the original colour.... And when I look at different websites the RGB values for this RAL 6018 is different every time?? Very strange... how do I know what color it will be when there's different RGB values every time?Thanks in advance!/ramoand

I've been trying to figure out how to import the latest Pantone swatch libraries to CS5 (mostly for InDesign and Illustrator). I tried installing the Pantone Plus Digital Libraries (http://www.pantone.com/pages/Pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=20721) but it didn't do anything.I discovered the libraries were not up to date when the company I work for received a branding guide that listed a Pantone swatch none of us could enter. We looked at our libraries and realized the swatch numbers didn't go high enough.Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Guys I have the issue when opening Illustrator documents containing images with different profiles, I have to decide on the assigning or converting for each image. Is there any global way within Illustrator to assign the working space of the document to all images?I know I can open the files individually in Photoshop, assign the correct profile then save the file and this will fix the problem, just wondered if there was a quicker way, as in InDesign.Many Thanks

I'm preparing a PDF where all images are in AdobeRGB(98) but without embedded profiles. The global Output Intent is AdobeRGB(98). 1. Is this Output Intent profile embedded ? My standard settings in Acrobat Professional 7 are: RGB: sRGB CMYK: ISOCoated Gray: Black Ink ISO Coated Output Intent overrides working spaces (checked) In my environment the images are shown correctly, which means that sRGB is replaced by AdobeRGB(98). What happens for average users who have only the free Acrobat Reader ? 2. Is there any Color Management in 'Reader' ? Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

Hi, I'm wondering what the 'safest' or most reliable method is for converting PMS spot colors to CMYK when we might not know the end printer?I was reading up on the difference in the conversion in InDesign (and Illustrator) when checking the "Use Standard Lab Values for Spots" box in the ink manager. So I understand how they come to different conclusions (sometimes pretty radically different) but don't really understand which is 'better'. I know this is a bit of a subjective question, but would love to hear from folks who have experience here.Most of the time, we are not aware of the printer who will end up printing a certain piece. And in the cases when we do actually know, I've found that the majority of the printers I've spoken to don't have a custom profile for their press (or don't know what that is) and usually tell me they calibrate their presses to SWOP standards or something.For the current project, it's going to one of those large gang-printing shops (4by6). They state that t

OK, here's the deal...I currently am doing my work flow on a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop.  I have Photoshop CS3 and am trying to get my color settings in Photoshop as well as my monitor calibrated so that what I see on my computer screen post production is what I see in a printed photo (I just use www.mpix.com). Some background info..I shoot  in Adobe RGB and I have callibrated my monitor using the Spyder 3 Pro.So, I was told that I need to go to Edit -> Color settings -> then under working spaces keep the RGB at the sRGB (and a hole bumch of numbers and some letters after that) setting.  But then under Color Management Policies change the RGB, CMYK,  and Gray drop downs to Convert to Working RGB, CMYK, and Gray.    I have since done this and before I used my Spyder 3 Pro to callibrate my monitor my prints were turning out dark and some of the prints had a green tone (depending upon the action I used in Photoshop).  I wasn't happy with this,

Hi, I work in an academic science group that has a networked HP DesignJet 800ps printer (postscript RIP). Unlike many inkjets, it appears to be a true CMYK printer - that is, our i1 Match software recognizes it as a CMYK device. We do all our printing in house - we don't have to worry about commercial printing or publishing, and our color management needs are basically confined to trying to have the printer's output match what we see on our monitors when we print photos in Photoshop or posters in Illustrator. Having previously worked only with RGB printers and in Photoshop, I am pretty much lost now as to how to set up our color management workflow. (And don't even ask about my colleagues. :-)) I've never had to worry about either CMYK workspaces or printers before. I want to keep things as simple as possible for the staff here, given that none, including myself, are graphics specialists. I've looked at the "Color Workflows for Adobe Creative Suite 3" document published by Adobe, and

I've spent the past 6 hours trying to resolve this issue, but 2 hours on the phone with tech support from apple and x-rite, along with hours of searching forums and troubleshooting; I've yet to find a solution. Here's the problem. I'm trying to calibrate my 24" imac (intel based, non glossy screen). I purchased the "Eye-One Display 2" monitor calibration device from X-Rite. After reading the horrible manual on the cd, and watching some youtube videos, I calibrated using the recommended settings. I set the temp to 6500, the gamma to 2.2, and the luminance to 120. The problem i'm having is that the mac brightness setting, even set at it's lowest possible setting, is still way over the recommended 110-120 luminance setting. I think 148 is the lowest the imac will go. Because of this, I am not able to properly calibrate my imac. I call up x-rite tech support and they tell me they have never seen anything like this. He told me he knew macs displayed bright, but in 2 years he never witne

I have recently installed Spectraview II to calibrate my NEC LCD 2180WG monitor but have some doubts on which target settings to use as there are different opinions on color temp, gamma and intensity choices. I use my system purely for photo post-processing and printing on color calibrated printers. I use AdobeRGB color space and have no interest for processing images for web. - What color temp do you use/recommend? D50, D65 or something in between? I see that some folks use D65 and others swear by D50. - What about Gamma choice 1.8, 2.2 or L* ? Same here, no common choice here too. - Lastly what about intensity (brightness in terms of cd/mm2)? NEC recommends Target Settings for Printing, which are D50, 1.8 gamma and Max. Intensity, but I'm not sure. I'd appreciate if you could recommend correct settings for my type of work. Thank You

How do you prepare a document for CMYK print in InDesign?I've already made sure that all imported images are in CMYK mode (by previusly editing them in Photoshop) - but how am I suposed to save the whole document in CMYK color mode? I tought it has something to do with Edit > Color Settings, but ...I know how to export PDF in CKYK mode (by choosing PDF/X-1a:2003 standerd, right?), but how do you get and save entire indd file in CMYK mode?I thought this was the right place to ask