Photoshop Error Message - Color Profiles

Thanks very much for taking the time!

Hi

Your post reminds me of my confusion when getting started with Photoshop and color profiles. 

Photoshop, when used correctly saves the document (image) color profile in with the file. 

What you have here in the screen shot is info about a file saved with sRGB embedded, all good so far.

When you open that image you see a warning that the profile embedded in your file is not the same as your "working color space" 

The "profile mismatch" warning can be useful - many like to be notified if an incoming file doesn’t conform to their default choice.

BUT in your case there's a problem indicated - because you have the monitor display color space set as your "working color space".

That’s not right, it's actually bad practice. True, it only affects newly created files, but, all the same, it indicates a misunderstanding of good practice. sRGB would be a better besic default.

Yeah it can be hard to get all this right, so you came to the right place for advice. 

As a useful default your color settings can be set to "North America General Purpose" - that will make your "working color space" sRGB.

Lots of people working towards print do prefer the larger Adobe RGB color space as the default - i.e. the "working color space". It is able to contain colors with more saturation than the sRGB space. 

sRGB is largely used as a default for web and handheld display.

Why not have a read up on color profiles, it'll help you'll understand all this better:

start here: https://www.colourmanagement.net/advice/about-icc-colour-profiles/

I hope this helps

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement.net :: adobe forum volunteer

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wrote:

how to handle this - for examle is RGB 8 bit proper as opposed to RGB 16 bit?

The short answer is that sRGB is the de facto color space of the web and social media.

But the longer answer is that doesn’t mean everything has to be set to sRGB, because anything you edit can be converted to sRGB when you export for the web from from Photoshop. The Export As and Save for Web (Legacy) commands both have a Convert to sRGB option. In other words, the original, editing, and delivery color spaces can all be different, as long as you deliver sRGB in the end.

To simplify this, follow D_Fosse’s advice and use the General Purpose settings for your region in the Color Settings dialog box. It automatically preserves profiles embedded in incoming images, and doesn’t put up warnings. You could use the Web/Internet settings, but it will show warnings; you’ll have to know how to handle them. What the General Purpose settings do is that no matter the color space of an incoming document, it’s fully preserved, and new blank documents are sRGB. That works fine.

You also asked about 8 bits per channel vs 16. That’s a different question than for color. 8 bits per channel sRGB is best for the web and social media, but it doesn’t have to be 8bpc when you edit it, because it will be converted to 8 bits per channel when you use the Export As or Save for Web commands.

The general idea is you can edit a nice high-quality master (8bpc Adobe RGB, 8bpc sRGB, 16bpc ProPhoto RGB, or whatever), and when you’re done, Export As or Save for Web will make it a web-ready 8bpc sRGB file. But if you want to keep it simple, you can use 8bpc sRGB from the start.

BTW - if you don't know what color space to use, the answer is very simple: use sRGB.

sRGB is safe in almost any situation and you can't really go terribly wrong. Adobe RGB, ProPhoto or DCI-P3, which are the other alternatives, all carry some special considerations and you need to know what you're doing. Wait until you get more experience before you start looking at those.

Don't ever set color management policies to "off". Don't ever set your monitor profile as working RGB. That disables all color management and will very quickly get you into deep trouble.

Revert your color settings to defaults, the easiest way is to check the "North America General Purpose" preset. Above all, policies should always be "Preserve Embedded Profiles".

Color management just works. Leave it alone.

As for the message itself, it's just for information. It's pretty useless at that and doesn't tell you anything useful. Having an embedded profile that doesn't match the working space has never been even the slightest problem. An embedded profile will always override the working space. With color management up and running, any profile will be correctly treated.

I have all those warnings turned off. It's much better to keep track of profiles in the notification area at the bottom left of the image window. It tells you all you need to know at a glance.

I not normal to have your default working RGB color space your display color space.  Images are normally edited in a standard color spacer like sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB. I think  you need to look at Color management some

So I looked again in my Color Profile and I changed the setting to the sRGB one and that allowed me to chnaged the RGB setting to Preserve Embedded Profile - is this the proper setting or should it be Adobe RGB (1998) or other?  And 8 Bit or 16 Bit?  Thanks.