How To Install Color Profiles In Photoshop Cs6

In Adobe Photoshop, learn more about printing with color management. You can make best use of your custom color profiles by allowing Photoshop to handle color. Install a color profile. In Windows, right-click a profile and select Install Profile. Alternatively, copy the profiles into the WINDOWS system32 spool drivers color folder. In Mac OS, copy profiles into the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder or the /Users/[ username ]/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.

PHOTOSHOP — any color management system (CMS) or application — cannot display, print or convert a file accurately unless it first applies the file's source profile (i.e., its source space, ICC profile, ColorSync profile, color space). There are only three ways Photoshop (or any application) can apply a document's source profile: • The file is 'tagged' with an embedded ICC profile, we HONOR (use) the embedded profile.• We Photoshop Edit>ASSIGN the correct source profile (or set up the CMS to Assign the correct profile by work flow default settings).• The file's source profile EQUALS Photoshop's working space (by chance or by work flow) and it is correctly assumed — and/or — the source 'numbers' are simply 'passed through' unaltered in the correct target destination profile. In color-managed programs like Photoshop, the CMS reads the source profile and Converts (or transforms) the document colors to a specific destination device Profile ( source>monitor profile, or source>printer profile) for accurate 'proofing.' On the Source>Monitor side of the color theory — this Converting or transforming process is most easily proven by taking a screenshot of an open Photoshop document, then opening the screenshot in Photoshop and 'Assigning' the monitor profile to the screenshot because the monitor profile is the only ICC profile that restores the document's so-called Photoshop 'true color.' Unmanaged apps generally only pass through the source RGB 'numbers' unalterd to the monitor or printing software. So proofing accuracy in unmanaged work flows will depend if the source profile 'matches' the application or system default profile (and if a proper conversion to the specific proofing space happens after that). Or if the source profile was previously converted to 'match' the specific target proofing space (monitor or printer ICC profile) and if the application successfully passes through the source numbers to the proofing device unaltered.

At this point it may be good to review my basic theory and terminology paper. Or skip down page to my actual for my 'Five Simple Steps to Profile Enlightenment.' This online Photoshop tutorial uses the CS6 CS5 CS4 CS3 PSCS2 CS1 PS12 11 PS10 PS9 PS8 PS7 PS6 Assign Profile Convert Profile features to explain how to Honor embedded profiles and Convert to target destination profiles like print spaces, iPhones, iPads, Droid, Blackberry smart devices and the Web through Adobe Photoshop color management theory. Remember PHOTOSHOP'S GOLDEN RULES: If the image has an embedded ICC profile: ALWAYS 'Use the embedded profile,' then Convert to the profile you want (if you need to change profiles). If the image does not have an embedded profile: ALWAYS 'Assign' the ICC profile that looks best on your 'calibrated' monitor, then Convert to the profile you want (if needed). If your monitor is not accurately 'calibrated' (profiled), Photoshop and apps will be skewing the monitor color, so be sure to so you can trust what you are seeing in color-managed applications like Photoshop.

'It is the theory that decides what we can observe.' - Albert Einstein What is the best profile to use in Photoshop? Adobe RGB 1998 and ProPhoto RGB profiles are excellent professional RGB working spaces (if you understand what you are doing), but sRGB is by far the most common and 'safest profile' to use both in and outside Photoshop because sRGB is the default profile standard for Windows and Apple OSX 10.7 operating systems and the Internet. My document is 'untagged' what profile should I use? If the image does not have an embedded profile — Photoshop: Edit>Assign Profile: sRGB IEC61966 2.1 is a good first guess for RGB (or 'US Web Coated (SWOP) v2' for CMYK) — because they are Photoshop's North American default profiles and the most common color spaces. How to simply Convert images to sRGB: If you just need the short answer to learn about how to simply Convert RGB photographs to sRGB: 1) Open the image in Photoshop (use the embedded profile) or Edit>Assign the correct profile, then 2) Edit>Convert To Profile: (select) sRGB profile (and Save).

ASSIGNING Vs CONVERTING PROFILES. What is the difference between Photoshop's 'Assign Profile' and 'Convert to Profile' color editing tools? There is a HUGE difference between Photoshop's (if you want to apply or change Profiles). • In Photoshop, to apply a profile, 'Use the Embedded Profile' when opening the document, or Edit>Assign Profile: correct Source Profile. NOTE: Photoshop Edit>Color Settings>Color Management Policies should be set to 'Preserve Embedded Profiles' so Photoshop automatically uses the embedded profile (if there is one). If the image is un-tagged, we will need to manually Assign the correct profile.

• In Photoshop, to change a profile, Edit>Convert to Profile: Destination Profile. NOTE: In order to properly 'change' a Profile, we need to be certain we have FIRST applied the correct Source Profile by application Default, Color Settings, color-managment Policies, or Assign Profile — THEN — Convert to the desired Destination Profile.

Many users have trouble understanding when to use Assign Profile and when to Convert to Profile — please exhaust your review of this Assign-Convert tutorial because it lays the cornerstone of the theory, and you will never understand how color management works without a 100-percent grasp of these two basic functions. Three ways to use the best Source Profile in Adobe Photoshop.

As the late explained in an Adobe Forum: 'I've seen more files wrecked by people opening perfectly good tagged files and either stripping the profile deliberately, having the software set up to discard the embedded profile, or using some antediluvian version of Photoshop that doesn't understand profiles, than from any other cause.' Here is a dramatic example of that phenomenon: SEEING IS BELIEVING.

Use a color-managed Web browser like Safari of Firefox This example demonstrates what happens to color when ICC profiles are ignored and/or the wrong default profile is sent straight through to the display: Move mouse over photos to rollover the Untagged version. If the rollover looks exactly the same (blue), your Web browser is not color managed (use a color-managed browser for best results). Both Tagged and Untagged files are identical except the top Tagged image has an embedded ICC profile, and its Untagged rollover mate has had its profile 'stripped' for this tutorial.. There are ONLY two times we use ASSIGN Profile: 1) The file is Untagged (we must tell Photoshop the file's correct Color Space).

Generally, most un-tagged RGB files will be closer to sRGB (Edit>Assign Profile: sRGB) because sRGB is the most popular default profile and it is a closer match to most monitors. 2) The file looks bad on a calibrated monitor (the file is mistagged, or balanced on an inaccurate monitor). We use Photoshop to look for a better ICC profile, one that displays the file better on an accurate, 'calibrated' monitor. After we Assign the best profile, then Edit>Convert to Profile: the desired profile (if needed). 1) The file was last saved — tagged or untagged — in Photoshop's current Working Space. Example to illustrate my 'Pass Through' point (use a color-managed Web browser like ).

Some Windows PC browsers and all unmanaged browsers will 'match' the Tagged and Untagged rollovers to the background color because all three elements are based on one Color Space (sRGB), but the color will only display 'accurately' on the elements that are being fully color managed (ie, sRGB profile is Applied and Converted to the Monitor Profile). This will be extremely confusing until you understand the simple basic concepts at work — then a light bulb will turn on and this example will make it super easy to observe what's happening inside your test browsers (how they react to Default Color Spaces and embedded Profiles): COLOR CONSISTENCY vs. COLOR ACCURACY A real problem for Web designers and color-managed Web browsers is mixing tagged and untagged color where the graphic background needs to 'match' or blend seamlessly into an HTML background color. The choice really boils down to designing Web pages for color consistency or color accuracy (Firefox with its enabled achieves both). • The above HTML box is filled with Hex-specified AF641E color — in most if not all Web browsers the Hex color is being sent straight to the monitor unaltered (except Firefox with its 'Full Color Management' enabled).• The Photoshop logo backgrounds are filled with the exact same AF641E.

• The tagged and untagged pixel-based logo graphics are identical except one has an embedded sRGB profile and the other had its profile stripped for this example.• The untagged logo RGB numbers are being sent straight to the monitor unaltered in most if not all Web browsers (except Firefox with its 'Full Color Management' enabled).• The embedded profile in the tagged logo file — in all fully color-managed web browsers — is being read and Converted to the monitor profile for accurate display. Non-managed browsers ignore the embedded profile and send the RGB straight through to the monitor unaltered. If you are trying to achieve this seamless blending effect on the Internet, be sure to first merge any Photoshop adjustment layers and then Edit>Convert to Profile: sRGB (if not already there) BEFORE setting your Hex color(s) in Photoshop, then Save for Web without an embedded ICC profile. Then set the same Hex color in your CSS HTML. If you are not crystal clear on how your apps or devices Assign/Assume/Apply or Pass Through RGB color spaces (the point I am exhausting here), I will recommend figuring it out now BEFORE trying to go any further with the theory because it lays another cornerstone to conceptualizing basic color management theory — and you will be lost without a 100-percent grasp of this Default and Pass-Through concept. BEGIN ASSIGN-CONVERT TUTORIAL Five simple steps to profile enlightenment. 1) DOWNLOAD THE TUTORIAL PHOTOS My original HONOR, ASSIGN, EQUAL points are very easy to PROOF in Photoshop using the low-resolution PDI test images I set up for this tutorial: (5MB) for Mac OSX & Windows PC.

IPhotoTESTfolder contains a collection of ten.jpg files — one reference image in five different Color Spaces in 'tagged' and 'untagged' pairs. I set these files up to effectively demonstrate how different color profiles, color spaces, gammas react on screen in both color-managed and un-managed applications. Each Tagged-Untagged pair is IDENTICAL except the Tagged file contains an embedded profile, and its Untagged mate had its profile stripped. The above 10 iPhoto test images are also useful to bring into in digital apps like Aperture, Bridge, Finder, Apple Preview, Lightroom, Final Cut Pro, iDVD, After Effects, Premier, Windows Explorer, Picture Viewer and observe how each application deals with various color spaces and profile information. BOUNS: Here are five tagged high-resolution 300 ppi, 10-inch images for your reference library — AppleRGB, AdobeRGB, sRGB, ProPhotoRGB, WhackedRGB — including the full unaltered original PDI_Target.jpg PhotoDisk PhotoDisc PDI image, plus the GettyImages®, PhotoDisc® freeware license, copyright and production credits. 2) SET PHOTOSHOP'S COLOR SETTINGS Go to Photoshop's Edit>Color Settings and set 'North American Prepress 2' (for the tutorial to get us working off the same settings). If you are using an older version of Photoshop, and Color Settings is not available there — try Photoshop>Color Settings>Settings>'US Prepress Defaults'.

All three 'Preserve Embedded Profile' and all three profile boxes are 'checked' — these Color Management Polices close — this means all embedded profiles will be 'Preserved,' and Photoshop will 'Warn' us of any profile mismatches. Bruce Fraser quote about Photoshop's Color Management Policies settings: 'The safest starting point is to set all Color Management Policies to Preserve Embedded Profiles, and to turn all warnings on. The other two policies change either the numbers in the images or the interpretation of those numbers automatically, which is great if that's something you understand and want to happen, but confusing at best and disastrous at worst when you don't.

The warnings give you a moment's pause to consider the situation, and to act accordingly.' When you are finished with this tutorial, remember to reset your Working Spaces (sRGB is recommended unless you know what you are doing), but please do follow Bruce Fraser's recommendation about keeping these Color Management Policies in play. 3) Open the five Untagged iPHOTO test files as noted: adobeRGB_Untagged.jpg, appleRGB_Untagged.jpg, srgbRGB_Untagged.jpg, prophotoRGB_Untagged.jpg, whackedRGB_Untagged.jpg At each Missing Profile warning: 'Leave as is (don't color manage)': With all five Untagged files open, notice Photoshop is displaying only the Untagged Adobe RGB file correctly because Photoshop is making the correct Assumption based on 'Working RGB EQUALS Adobe RGB.' Moreover, observe the other four Untagged files are displaying uniquely incorrect. This is because we told Photoshop to 'Leave as is (don't color manage)' the images — that has the same effect in Photoshop as Edit>Assign Profile: Working RGB (Adobe RGB 1998). Hence, that was the correct move only for the Adobe RGB file. Decrypt Max Script.

In other words, when we configure Photoshop to ignore embedded profiles or we don't give it a profile to use, Photoshop Assigns its Working Space to the source image (for all practical purposes). Now ALL TEN TEST FILES ARE DISPLAYING IDENTICALLY (correctly) because: • We HONORED the embedded profile on the five Tagged files (step 4).• We Edit>Driver Smart Office Keyboard Ez 7000 on this page. ASSIGNED (the correct) Profiles to the Untagged Apple RGB, ProPhoto RGB, sRGB and Whacked RGB files (step 5).• We applied 'Don't Color Manage this Document' to the Untagged AdobeRGB image which EQUALS Photoshop's Working RGB (step 3). If I've done my journalistic and tutorial job correctly, my point should be becoming obvious — with a review and further practice — my core point should be crystal clear: Photoshop must be told the Source Document's true Source Profile or it will change the file's color mapping and skew all color Conversions, including Source>Monitor & Source>Print Space. THIS IS ANOTHER ENLIGHTENING EXERCISE about how ICC profiles work in Photoshop. If you are still trying to understand how ICC Profiles work — Save the above image to your Desktop — Open it in Photoshop (use the embedded profile: sRGB) — then Edit>Assign Profile: ProPhoto RGB — observe the color chaos (all the photos go super saturtated in the reds EXECPT for the Un-Tagged ProPhoto RGB, it snaps back to True Color). If you want to see an even more bizarre example of Assign Profile in action — Save the above image to your Desktop — Open it in Photoshop (use the embedded profile: sRGB) — then Edit>Assign Profile: Wacked RGB. For this to work, you will likely need to have already installed the 'WhackedRGB.icc' profile (available in the (4MB) for PC and Mac OS-X).

P age last updated 3/11/2012 by: ©2004-2012 G. BALLARD • www.gballard.net Note: G. BALLARD prefers a shredding if he is wrong or unclear. Please read the www.gballard.net site, and site for legal issues regarding your use of the www.gballard.net site. Ballard, www.gballard.net, receives no compensation from, and is not affiliated with Adobe Systems, Inc., or Apple Computers.

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