What is "Proof Colors" option for?

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
July 15, 2011
2 replies
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In PS CS4, under View, there's Proof Setup, which allows you to view soft proofing, so you can set it for your lab's profiles, so you know about how it will be printed.

However, underneath Proof Setup, is "Proof Colors". What is that for? It's only off/on, no other settings for that. It can't be, that the Proof Setup is turning the "Proof Colors" on or off so you can see how the lab will print it, because the colors change whether "Proof Colors" is checked or not. However, when it's UNCHECKED, and I go into change a potential Proof Colors choice (say from my lab's profile to Nikon's profile), the color of the photo changes, and the Proof Color now has a check in front of it.

So....what's that for, and how do you work that?

Noel Carboni

Legend

It allows you to simulate what your image would look like if interpreted directly in the color space you set, rather than transformed using its profile and a device's profile. It can also provide you a preview of CMYK color separations.

View - Proof Setup sets the profile you want to simulate or "test" with, and checking Proof Colors enables the "test", overriding normal display color management. Proof Colors is automatically checked (enabled) when you set a profile in Proof Setup as a convenience feature.

You would normally want to use Photoshop with Proof Colors UNchecked, so that the colors ARE automatically transformed to those needed by your monitor per its profile. This helps ensure that you'll see them accurately.

Photoshop's Help facility has some additional detail for this.

-Noel

T

TerryLn22Author

Inspiring

Well this is truly annoying. When Proof Colors is checked, I think I'm good to go. Then a few photos and 1 hour later, I find out it's turned itself off, and I have to redo all the work. You have to remember to turn it on for each and every photo. That's ridiculous.

Is there some way to lock it in on or off position? I don't see a way to do that.

T

TerryLn22Author

Inspiring

All this, of course, is because it's anticipated that "Proof Colors" is a transient setting, that you will enable only for brief periods to check how things look under certain output conditions - which is why I questioned your need to use it long-term.

Just to clarify, you are using Proof Colors to optimize the color of your document for particular output conditions on a non-color-managed system, right?

It doesn't sound like anything in particular is wrong with that, if in fact that's what you're targeting, though it isn't really the approach most take...

Most people with the need for very careful color control take the approach of getting the colors good in a more or less "absolute" sense (e.g., by using normal color management on a calibrated/profiled display), convert profiles as needed, and maybe tweak it a bit at the end for particular output conditions.

Rather than try to edit with Proof Colors enabled, have you considered converting to the output profile before providing the images?

Are you willing to go into, a little deeper, how different "normal color-managed" output is from the specific output conditions you're facing? I'm not completely sure I understand all the constraints you have.

I'm not trying to be critical of you at all here - I'm just curious about your workflow, and would like to see perhaps we can find a less frustrating alternative where you are doing things in a more typical fashion and the system doesn't fight you.

-Noel

Noel,

Thanks for the interest.

My monitor is calibrated, in fact, I'm using an Eizo CG 221, tough to beat my monitor.

Let's say I shoot a wedding, or family portraits. I get an order for 10 prints or whatever. I downloaded the lab's profiles, and using the Proof Colors option within Photoshop, I can see how the prints will come out from the lab, and tweak them as I see fit, according to the lab's output profiles and how the lab will print them.

But if I pull up 10 images, check the Proof Colors to come on, I think I'm good to go. I tweak the first photo, save the changes, close it. I then do the same for the next 7 photos, until it dawns on me, that the Proof Colors turned itself off; you have to turn it on for each photo.

I guess if that's the way it is, and there's no way to leave it on all the time, then so be it. I'll live with it. If there's a way it can stay on all the time, until I manually turn it off, that'd be better.

Thanks.

jeff