Can't change RGB Color Management Policies in Photoshop...

[Maryell Diaz Muñoz]

Hi, 

When I click on the drop down menu next to RGB in 'Color Management Policies' under 'Color Settings' - I can see that there are three options: 'OFF', 'PRESERVE etc', and 'CONVERT etc'.  I would like to change to PRESERVE, but it is not letting me.  I can only select and use OFF.

I'd really appreciate any insight into why this might be happening.

Cheers!

[Per Berntsen · Accepted solution]

This will happen if you use the monitor profile (Monitor RGB) as the RGB working space.

Don't ever do that, it disables color management.

Use a standard profile like sRGB or Adobe RGB as the working space, which will allow you to choose Preserve embedded profiles.

Note that the working space only affects new files that you create inside PS (using File > New), and also acts as a fallback if you open an untagged image.

If you set Missing profiles to Ask when opening, PS will let you choose which profile to assign to an untagged image.

If this box is unchecked, PS will automatically assign the working space.

[Maryell Diaz Muñoz]

Thank you so much for the tip!  I have to say I find the whole colour profile thing quite confusing.  Images look so different on my mac vs my pc, vs my phone.  Obviously each screen is different, but the variation in colour and contrast can be quite extreme.  

[D Fosse]

That's why color management was invented. If you use it correctly, everyone that also has a properly set up system will see the same thing, anywhere, on any system and any display. Phones excepted, no support there.

To use color management correctly in Photoshop basically means doing nothing. It works out of the box at default settings (with a few minor exceptions). Most color management problems happen because people do something when they shouldn't.

To take full advantage of this, you also need to profile your display, so that it too has an icc profile that can be used in this equation. This is not to be confused with the document profile! All color management requires two profiles, a source and a destination. If you use the same profile for both, they cancel each other out and turns color management off, as Per points out.

Calibrators are not as expensive as most people think, and most experienced users will consider that an essential piece of equipment.

[Maryell Diaz Muñoz]

That's what I've struggled with, profiling my display.  On mac I tried the calibrate display setting but it didn't seem to do much.  I tried a similar setting in windows but it didn't seem to have many options or to do much.  Just asked if I wanted to change white point basically.  To calibrate a display do you need to download special software?

[Per Berntsen]

To calibrate properly, you need a hardware calibrator, which comes with the necessary software.

Do a search at for instance B&H, for "monitor calibrator".

[D Fosse]

To do it properly, you need a sensor (colorimeter) that measures the display's behavior, and software that writes a profile describing that behavior. They often come in packages, but those two components don't have to come from the same vendor, as long as the software supports the sensor used.

Now, you don't absolutely need to do this, but if you want to see accurate color, that's how it's done.

A calibrator actually does two things: first it adjusts the monitor to a white point and neutral color balance relative to that white point. But that's only part of it.

Next, it writes a monitor profile. This is a standard icc profile, just like any other icc profile, and Photoshop then performs a standard profile conversion, on the fly, as you work. The result of the conversion is sent to screen. This has much higher precision than the calibration. The difference is important to understand - only applications that actually support color management will do this last part.

And this is why you should never use the monitor profile as working RGB or document profile. That's not where it belongs. This is a conversion from the document profile into the monitor profile. You need both, each in its right place.

EDIT: yes, as Per says, only in a lot more words 😉