Accurate proof with inaccurate monitor? [color management question]

At the risk of sounding really dumb, here goes:
I have never had a true color managed workflow despite dabbling in it and even delving into custom profiling.
I don't want to shut the windows in my upstairs office and be dependent on unnatural light sources. I'm content to design knowing that what's on my monitor is not accurate.
But I do want to be able to print my own inkjet proofs and know that what I see on paper is at least 90% accurate to what I'll get off press. And I want to try my best to provide clients with PDF proofs that come as close as possible to press. (This last bit's probably a pipe dream given that the clients don't have calibrated monitors, but perhaps Acrobat 9's new Overprint Preview default settings will help somewhat?)
Is this realistic? Everything I know about color management starts with monitor calibration and I'm reluctant to take that step for fear of working in a cave-like environment.
Would love to hear thoughts from the community.

I'm still using my Sony Artisan, and dreading the day it fails to calibrate, but I'm definitely in the minority now. Adobe Gamma is useless for LCDs, and no longer ships, but the modern hardwares solutions are all supposed to be compatible. I suspect you'll get good results with a good monitor.
As far as being worthwhile, absolutely. My office uses North light and daylight balanced fluorescent lighting, so there isn't a harsh color change through the day. Things are probably most accurate at the time of day when the calibration was last done, but they are definitely better any time than they would be without it.
Peter

Similar Messages

  • Another color management question

    Hi folks,
    Apologies for yet another color management question, but Im getting very confused and could do with some help. I use a Canon 10D and Canon 30D. Ive come to LightRoom from Pixmantec Raw Shooter.
    As Ive gotten more serious about producing high quality images for both the web and as prints, I thought Id invest in the Colorvision Spyder2 calibration product. So my monitor is now calibrated (quite a difference from what I was seeing!) and I have a calibration profile applied.
    My needs are pretty obvious I want my images to look the same wherever theyre viewed including exported files (such as JPEGs) whether this be on my monitor (in LightRoom, a web browser, Paint Shop Pro, whatever) and on a printer.
    Perhaps Im getting confused because Im trying to compare what LightRoom does with what RawShooter does.
    In RawShooter, when exporting from RAW to JPEG, I can specify the RGB Working Space Im using and then select my monitor profile. I think that what happens is that the export mechanism takes this profile into account and, low and behold, the JPEG looks fine when viewed in any web browser - the colours are exactly the same as in RawShooter. In Paint Shop Pro they look fine too unless I enable Color Management in which case (Im guessing) the monitor profile is, essentially, applied twice! But the upshot is I seem to get the results I want.
    What I cant figure out is how I do this in LightRoom. I can make the same adjustments to the RAW image as I did in RawShooter, but there doesnt seem an option for me to select my profile on export to JPEG only the standard 3 color spaces. Anyway the result is a JPEG that looks somewhat different when viewed in a web browser, or Paint Shop Pro with Color Management turned off. However, if I turn Color Management on in Paint Shop Pro, then it looks fine. So Im assuming that my profile isnt accounted for when exporting JPEGs from LightRoom.
    So any pointers or explanations would be really appreciated. I also acknowledge that this is my first foray into color management, and feel free to tell me to go and read some introductory article (link please!) and then come back with a sensible question if thats whats needed!
    Thanks in advance.
    - Pete

    Lightroom color management.
    a.) Monitor profile used: The profile set as the default in your operating system (e.g. Windows xp). (your monitor profile software usually does this when you calibrate/profile your monitor).
    b.) Working space: ProPhotoRGB
    c.) Export color space: You can choose one of the following sRGB; Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB.
    There is no option (afaik) to change a.) or b.) the option you choose in c.) will affect how the exported image will be displayed in color managed applications or non-color managed applications.
    Non-color managed applications are not able to display Adobe RGB or Pro Photo RGB correctly. I guess if you wish a consistent display of your images in color managed and non-color managed applications then the only common factor is sRGB and you should export your images in sRGB color space.
    The benefits of the other expanded color spaces are in printing and you also would have to get this end of your color management correct. Printing profiles to match your printer and each paper being used etc.
    Until you can get this all sorted out you will get better results from sRGB, this is also applicable when using most commercial printing services.

  • Newbie color management question

    hi folks
    using cs4. just finished a cmyk job on a new press. colors on the final print job were pretty faithful to what i saw on my monitor when doing the design, with a few exceptions that i'd like to tweak if possible. i'm new to color management, so looking for some pointers.
    according to my research, the right thing to do is to request a colorsync or icm or icc profile from my press. i did...but my press was slightly confused and sent me a bunch of .icc files and i don't know which one to load. the press people are great people and it's a good press, but i got the feeling that they weren't asked this question a lot. so i ended up using u.s. web coated (swop) v2 as a profile, which is what they ultimately recommended.
    so if i can't get an icc profile from my press, the other approach according to my research is to wing it and adjust the color profile on my own so that what i see on my monitor matches the printed output. in other words, i take the printed output and hold it up to my screen and manually adjust the color profile settings. i believe this is done in photoshop under edit-->assign profile and/or edit-->color settings, and then sync the color management for all applications using the bridge. or maybe this can be done in indesign? i'm asking the question on this forum because of the great responses i've gotten here.
    i don't want to screw things up and i'm a newbie with this, so... any advice out there? my basic situation is that the colors were reasonably faithful but there was a very curious thing where a c=0,m=0,y=35,k=15 color looked very green on the printed page even though it was a mellow looking yellow on my monitor. i want to try to adjust that.
    thanks.........

    Do you have a colorimeter and monitor profiling software? That's the place to start any color managed workflow. You also need a reasonably good monitor that CAN be calibrated. If the monitor isn't accurately showing you the colors, then nothing you do is going to matter.
    Matching the monitor to the print is an old technique that works only when you have a closed loop where all work is output on the same press under the same conditions. The purpose of using device independent editing spaces, such as Adobe RGB, is that in theory any properly calibrated monitor will display the image the same, and you can convert to any known output space at the time of output.
    Terms like mellow looking yellow are pretty subjective, so I don't know what you were expecting, but I wouldn't expect 35y, 15k to be very bright, nor very yellow. While I wouldn't describe the color as green on my monitor, it certainly doesn't resemble a banana, and next to a brighter yellow one might call it greenish by comparison. It's really a light yellowish gray,I think.
    I'm putting up a comparison here to see what it looks like, but colors won't be accurate in a browser.

  • Color management question on having separate profiles in one document

    I have a document with images in it that have attached printer profiles with different separations, I'd like to print without further conversion of these images since they are profiled to be printed with no color management, how do I go about this?
    Does Indesign see the attached profiles and ignore the document profile? Or Do I have to set a document profile with no UCR/GCR that will maintain CMYK values.
    Thank you

    >I'd like to print without further conversion of these images
    Profiles are only useful if there needs to be additional color conversions at output or exporta conversion to a new CMYK space (new press conditions) or conversion to RGB for monitor display or an RGB proofing device.
    You don't want or need additional CMYK to CMYK conversions so you don't need the embedded profiles. When the profiles are ignored, the ID document profile is assigned to the images (there's no conversion) and as long as you output with the destination as Document CMYK the image values will be output with no change.
    Ignoring the profiles can potentially change the ID preview of images separated with conflicting profiles (CMYK>RGB), but it sounds like you are simply separating for different black generations so you shouldn't see a preview change.

  • Dual-monitor color management?

    So I've got a dual-monitor setup running OS 10.7 on a Mac Pro, and color management in Bridge CS5.1 on my second screen is a mess. Both monitors have been individually calibrated with a Pantone Huey Pro (not perfect, but generally pretty consistent across screens).
    Viewing an image in Bridge on my first screen, I have no problem. But the same image, when viewed on my second screen, appears heavily oversaturated. When I open the image in Photoshop or Preview, the color is accurate and is consistent across both screens. The below image illustrates the problem: the colors shown correctly in Photoshop (foreground) and incorrectly in Bridge (background). The Creative Suite color settings in Bridge show the settings as "synchronized" with the "North American General Purpose 2" default.
    I'm sort of out of my depth here when it comes to color management. Do I have something set wrong? Is this a Lion-related bug? Any help would be appreciated.

    The way I have it set up is this: I have two synchronized windows, one on each of my two displays. In one I have a content panel, metadata, collections, etc. In the second window I just have a preview panel, supplying me with a full-screen (almost) preview of any thumbnail I select from the content panel in the other window.
    Content (assuming thumbnails as well) panel preview on one display and the Preview panel preview on the other display are both being generated by one application and that is Bridge. Like I said above, I don't think, in fact I'm almost certain this is impossible for Bridge to pull off because of the dual matrices (mathematical formulas) written into each custom display profile that occupy the same video chip to calculate and control hue/saturation appearance in color managed images. Think of the complexity involved. Now Adobe is known for creating workflow miracles with their programming but I doubt they'ld be able to pull that off with Bridge.
    Photoshop can pull this off having one image on one display and dragging to the other where it makes the adjustment on the fly. I've seen the quick shift that occurs doing this. But I don't think Bridge can do this because of it's caching structure. I hope an Adobe employee chimes in to correct me.
    Now this dovetails into your mentioning forcing a display into the sRGB space during calibration and profiling of each display. This is not what happens doing a hardware calibration. I'm assuming you pick your target Luminance (120 cd/m2 +/-), Gamma (2.2. gamma-usually native) and Color Temp (6500K). It doesn't matter if you did anyway, but what the hardware calibrator does is measure each display's RGB colorant and density range and write the data into the final profile that allows applications like Colorsync Utility to display a 3D gamut model and color managed applications like Photoshop to show colors as intended.
    Your display may be close to sRGB but never exact to it because sRGB is a synthetic (made up) color space. Your display has physical anomalies that must be measured and written into the profile to properly display the intended appearance of color referencing the CIELAB color space which is based on human vision. Everything about computerized color in a color managed workflow is based on mapping color to display properly according to gamut size. A computer is a dumb machine and has to be told everything using math. You actually do have to draw it a map to follow.
    Bridge's Preview pane looking different may be either referencing the other display profile or is stuck referencing the other and what's happening is the equivalent of Assigning one of the display profiles to the Preview like you can do to an image in Photoshop. Try it. Take your image and convert to one of your display profiles and assign the other display profile to it. Check if you see a slight shift. If Bridge's main Preview pane is stuck showing pixels mapped to (synthetic) sRGB then the same assigning of the display profile effect takes place.
    And/or the thumbnails aren't color managed and the Preview pane is and maybe a bit of the above is compounding things. If you aren't confused now can you imagine trying to mathematically write the thumbnail previews on one display and the main Preview on the other both controlled by one application on top of caching and managing a large image database?
    Keep the Preview pane and Content pane on one display. Edit your images in Photoshop/ACR/Lightroom on the primary display.
    The Color Settings where you select North American Prepress...Web...General Purpose...etc. only applies to how images are handled and previewed that don't have an embedded profile. Are your jpeg images embedded with a profile? If so then this is not the issue. This doesn't apply to Raw captures because their previews are generated by the default Adobe Camera Raw settings.
    Omke, no more Version Cue? That's welcome news!

  • Color Management Question

    I use LightRoom 2 and CS3.  All my photo enlargements are done at CostCo on a Noritsu 3111.  In the past before I started using LightRoom, I edited in CS, then saved the file to a memory stick, and took it to CostCo for printing.  I always got excellent, consistent results.
    With LightRoom. first I understand that the color space is ProPhoto, not AdobeRGB, and that there are two ways of getting an image printed from LightRoom:
                      1.  Similar to what I had done before in CS, I can EXPORT and create a jpg file, or
                      2.  I can use the PRINT module to created the jpg with print profiles enbedded.
    Working through Lightroom, shouldn't I be able to get consistent color by simply using the EXPORT feature without adding any profile, and letting CostCo handle the color?  This whole subject of color management has me a bit confused.
    Here's what I think I know:
         My monitor is calibrated by a Huey.  Therefore my on screen colors should reflect accurately in any color space selected.
         Printer profiles are needed to match a color space image to a particular printing paper.
         If no printer profile is provided, the printer manages the color.  This has always worked for me in the past, but I seem to be running into problems now, and can't seem to understand what's different, other than using ProPhoto, which is just a wider gamut space.
    Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.
    Mike

    Thank you both Pete and Jao,
    Both of your answers have helped me immensely and I'm now printing acceptable images again.  I have one further question in regards to your note, Jao, baout "stripping" the profiles.  I'm not quite clear what you mean by that.  I am quickly falling in love with LightRoom, and will probably wind up doing most of my work there, using it also to prepare printing files for CostCo's Noritsu printer.  I downloaded the 3111 profile and ran a print, and am happy with the result.  In Dry Creek's instructions on "Using Printer Profiles with Digital Labs", step #16 says to convert the image to the appropriate profile (Image, Mode, Convert to Profile).  I forgot to do this, but still got good results.  Is it a necessary step?  It says Noritsu does not read embedded profiles, so you must convert the image data.
    Thank you, guys, for making a confusing subject alot more understandable.
    Mike

  • SRGB vs no Color Management question

    I have two workflows for Photoshop that produce the exact same results and I want to know which one to use, but most importantly why?
    WORKFLOW 1: NO COLOR MANAGEMENT
    1. Photoshop Color Settings is set to "Monitor Color" which tells the PSD to not use color management.
    2. I check with Proof Colors (View > Proof Colors), having Monitor RGB selected (View > Proof Setup > Monitor RGB), and of course nothing changes.
    3. I Save for Web and nothing changes (If I select "convert to sRGB" in the Save for Web dialog the colors wash out so I NEVER check this).
    4. Export the image.
    WORKFLOW 2: sRGB
    1. Photoshop Color Settings is set to "North America General Purpose 2" which tells the PSD to use sRGB.
    2. I check with Proof Colors (View > Proof Colors), having Monitor RGB selected (View > Proof Setup > Monitor RGB), and the colors change a good bit.
    3. I Save for Web and it matches what Proof Colors shows me (If I select "convert to sRGB" in the Save for Web dialog nothing changes).
    4. Export the image.
    Both of these yeild the exact same image. The technical difference is that the second image has sRGB embedded? From a workflow difference I perfer the first one since I never have to check if Proof Colors is selected, the image looks the same no mater what. In the second workflow I have to always check if Proof Colors is selected otherwise what I see in photoshop doesn't look the same as the exported image.
    PLEASE help me to understand, that while both of these workflows yeild the exact same image, why the second one is better because I feel like the first one is not.
    P.S. Majority of the work I do is for the screen (web or application UI) so I'm not to worried about print work but wouldn't mind any pointers in relation to this situation.

    It's about 1:30 AM in my part of the world I need to get some rest, so I'll have to be brief.
    I've never seen so many misconceptions crammed into a single post as you've managed to get in your last one. 
    I'll try to get at least the most glaring ones.
    eddit wrote:
    1. I do understand that of the millions on monitors there are none that match, and the exact reds, greens, and blues that I see on my screen differ from other screens (i have a number of computers in my home and am very aware of this).
    Good, but that's not the point. 
    eddit wrote:
    I also know that there is a huge gamma shift from PC to Mac as I use to be a PC users and am now on a Mac.
    Only if the Mac user is still living in the stone age.  Macs should be calibrated to gamma 2.2, just like a PeeCee.  The old gamma 1.8 standard is a relic left over from the day of Apple monochrome monitors and LaserWriter b&w printers.  Even Apple recommends 2.2.
    eddit wrote:
    why would I work with a psd that is color managed, if it will all just get dumped by the browser anyways?
    Because presumably you want to have a clue as to what your image looks like and what it might look like to others.
    This is totally independent from whether you embed a profile or not.  Different issue.
    eddit wrote:
    2. I'm not talking about EMBEDDING profiles into any of the images that I Save For Web.
    Neither am I.
    eddit wrote:
    3. I am far more interested in color consistency rather than color accuracy as G Ballard points out in his tutorials.
    The only way to achieve consistency is through a color managed workflow.  That's what Color Management is all about, consistency.
    eddit wrote:
    From what G Ballard says, in a web browser, Macs apply the monitor profile and Windows applies sRGB.
    Good grief!  That is so wrong or badly phrased that I feel bad even quoting it!   That statement is garbage/rubbish.
    Only the bloody Slowfari (Apple's Safari) throws monitor profile at untagged files, i.e. files with no embedded color profile.  No other browser does that.  Period.  If the file is tagged, Safari will honor the embedded profile.
    Firefox 3.9 (both Mac and Windows) correctly assumes sRGB for untagged files (files without an embedded color profile) with color management enabled in the guts of Firefox and/or even with color management disabled.
    All other browsers on this planet, Mac and Windoze, are not color managed and assume sRGB for all files, with or without an embedded profile.
    The reason the files look very similar to you is that you are dealing with the lowest common denominator (sRGB, where the s stands for sh¡t, as we know now), and probably your color monitor is pretty close to that common denominator.
    If you happened to have an expensive truly wide-gamut monitor, your untagged files created in your monitor profile as working space would look like cr@p to you.
    Get this through your head:  you cannot turn off color mangement in Photoshop, no matter what you do, the application won't let you.  You're just messing up with color management the way you work, you are not "turning it off" as you seem to think.

  • 2nd monitor color management: Ps v Lr

    Please help me understand the following problem ... but first, my hardware:  Macbook Air (mid-2011) with OS X 10.8, with a NEC wide gamut P221W monitor connected as a secondary display.  The NEC display is calibrated with Spectraview and an X-rite eye-one display sensor.
    I usually work with Lightroom 4 exclusively, but I will on occassion turn to Photoshop CS5 for working with layers.  I've configured Lr for using Ps as a alternate editor and Lr is supposed to create a PSD file, 16bit and embed ProphotoRGB as it working color space.  The problem is, these exported PSD images appear undersaturated on the NEC display ... but examining the PSD data implies PpRGB.  Ps is configured for AdobeRGB, but appropriately asks about the mismatch, and I select use PpRGB  These undersaturated colors are in contrast with how Lr displays the same image on the same monitor.  Also, if I put both images on the Macbook primary display (Lr in the background, Ps in front), the colors appear to be the same.  Also, if I quit both programs and open Ps only and then load the recent image, the colors will appear with correct saturation ...
    I can only conclude that Lr interferes with Ps properly compensating via the NEC's display profile ... and therefore I'll need to close Lr when editing with Ps.  Has this behaviour been verified by anyone else?  Is there a remedy??
    TIA & Cheerios from the Avalon 

    >it shows the mismatch dialogue box: Embedded Adobe RGB 1998, Working: Monitor3-7-08.
    Ow, this means you have Photoshop set up incorrectly. Go to Edit->Color settings and make sure that the top-profile (RGB) says adobeRGB. You should never have a monitor profile there except if you're a web designer.
    >DYP, you can change LR colour space to other than ProPhoto as default.
    No you cannot. You can only change the default profile Lightroom uses to send to Photoshop. Lightroom ALWAYS uses a prophotoRGB-like working space internally for every picture.
    >I set it to Adobe RGB to sync with camera and PS.
    If you shoot RAW, the in-camera setting does not matter and Lightroom will render as wide as prophotoRGB.
    >Would changing to ProPhoto colour space not cancel my calibrated monitor profile? Or am I misunderstanding the principles behind monitor calibration?
    No, they have nothing to do with each other. Color managed apps automatically translate between their working space and the monitor profile. This capability is the basic meaning of being color managed. They get the information about the monitor profile from the OS. You never have to tell them about it. Photoshop just knows it. You do not have to set it up anywhere.

  • Uh Oh, Possible Problem with GPU-based Color Management

    NOTE:  The following could be an unwelcome side effect of installing the ATI 12.11 Beta 4 display driver, which I installed yesterday to try out with my Radeon HD 7850.
    Consider this PNG image file - nothing special, sRGB color space, some well-saturated greenish colors...
    It looks like this to me when opened into Photoshop CS6 with either Normal or Advanced GPU modes enabled:
    Note that the saturated green lamp is completely blacked out.
    It looks like this if the GPU Mode is set to Basic:
    The data is actually there, and when I sample the colors I find that the Red channel is clipped (zero). 
    That is a clue.  Sure enough, if I raise the black point of the red channel to 1 the problem is averted:
    As it's a pretty obvious glitch I hadn't noticed until just now, this likely started occurring when I installed the new ATI driver yesterday morning, but I'm not sure.  It may be some kind of overflow or underflow in the GPU color-management processing, which is moved to the CPU in Basic mode.
    I'm doing more investigation, including ultimately cleaning up and dropping back to the ATI Catalyst 12.8 release, but given this behavior I think I'd advise staying away from the Catalyst 12.11 Beta 4 driver for now.  Assuming this is a driver issue, 12.8 may still be the best in recent Catalyst releases.
    I'll follow-up in this thread as I learn more.
    -Noel

    2m wrote:
    Does anyone here monitor ( ) the ATI/AMD fori if this issue is widespread?
    The ATI/AMD forums are mostly populated with people wanting to play games. There are few mentions of Photoshop.
    Yes, I browse over there from time to time, where I am considered a "peon".  I've seen evidence that a few games show corruption of a type that might be similar to what's shown here, but since it's the GPU programming by Adobe that's going wrong, which we must assume is  some kind of edge case that's not behaving as expected, it's hard to say how it might manifest in other programming.
    Chances are good gamers shut their computers down when done playing, so the monitor power-down failure may not be seen by many, but again I have had confirmation from several folks that the failure is seen by others besides me.  By the way, to be very specific, the monitors DO power down at the prescribed time.  Then a little later they turn back on.
    See also:
    http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=454&threadid=162122
    http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=454&threadid=162123
    -Noel

  • Basic color management questions

    Having difficult understanding some concepts in color management - would appreciate any guidance to further understand it.
    What is the difference in backgrounds between additive and subtractive process color systems?
    How is white formed differently in additive and subtractive process systems?
    How are the non-process colors like orange formed differently in the additive and subtractive process systems? What colors from each system forms an orange?
    Why is the difference in the process of color formation of major concern with the use of computers in the preparation of materials for 4-color process color printing?
    Why is the difference in the process of color formation of major concern with the use of computers in the preparation of materials for 4-color process color printing?

    Sarah,
    Deep subject, so this will only touch the surface.
    What is the difference in backgrounds between additive and subtractive process color systems?
    How is white formed differently in additive and subtractive process systems?
    RGB blends "light" to generate colors.  CMYK blends "inks".  Starting with RGB and light.....pure white blends high levels of red, green and blue wavelengths in approximate equal amounts, which we perceive as white.  In Photoshop parlance, using 8-bit, this translates to 255R, 255G, 255B.  When we see an object, we are actually seeing the light that reflects from that object, not the object itself.  So, a bright white object reflects most of the visible light spectrum and reaches our eye, which the brain interprets to be white.  A black object "absorbs" light so nothing is reflected to the eye.
    To print, you need inks on paper, not light.  If you were to use red, green and blue inks, you'd have a big problem printing colors like yellow.  So, they devised the subtractive color process (RGB is additive, ie, adding all three lights together gives you white).  They took the opposite colors of Red, green and blue, which are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.  In theory, you should be able to create the same spectrum of colors with the CMY subtractive colors that you can with the RGB additive colors, but in practice, that is not the case, for at least two reasons.  The CMY inks are not pure and as intense as the RGB primaries, and second, you have to apply these inks to paper, which drastically limits dynamic range.  To deal with the ink purity problem, (and to give better type), they add Black to the CMY mix, for four inks....Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black.  To get white, you rely on the paper alone, without any ink.  In theory, pure black would be either 100C, 100M, 100Y, or it could be 100K (black), or it could be 100% each of CMYK.  But, these three do not give the same results, due to ink purity, ink limits,  paper, process, etc.
    How are the non-process colors like orange formed differently in the additive and subtractive process systems? What colors from each system forms an orange?
    Why is the difference in the process of color formation of major concern with the use of computers in the preparation of materials for 4-color process color printing?
    In the CMYK world, orange is a mixture of Yellow and Magenta inks, with more yellow than magenta.  For example, 52M, 94Y gives a fairly vibrant orange.  Again, hue, saturation and brightness are dictated by the mix percentages, paper, ink limits, ink purity, etc.  In the RGB world, this same color is defined as 255R, 143G, 33B (depending on the "flavor" (color spaces) of RGB and CMYK you are using.  There is a relationship between RGB and CMYK, and this example is no exception.  When red is maxed out at 255, cyan is the opposite, in this case zero.  In this orange color, Green is 143, near the middle of the range, and so is its opposite, Magenta, which is near the middle of its range, at 52.  Blue is 33, at the very low end of its range, and its opposite, Yellow, is near the top of its range at 94.  Since this is a bright color, there is no black ink used at all.  If it were a darker orange, there would probably be some black in as well.
    Some colors can be created in RGB that cannot be duplicated in CMYK.  The opposite is also usually true, that there are colors in CMYK that cannot be duplicated in RGB (depending on the color space you use).  If your intended output is a monitor, the internet, email, or a printer that needs "light" you would generally use RGB.  If the intent is to "print" the job, on a press, inkjet, laser, etc, then CMYK is generally used.  Even if you send an RGB file to your inkjet, the printer driver translates the RGB colors to CMYK in the background before output.  Most, if not all, printers use CMYK subtractive inks for printing,  These can generate a large portion of the printable spectrum.  Some printers add light cyan and light magenta inks, or even red, green, blue, orange, and other colors to help extend the color gamut of the printer so it can achieve colors that would be "out of gamut" using CMYK alone.
    Another difference is that CMYK is a four color process, unlike RGB, which is three color.  A given color has only ONE definition when defined in RGB, HSB, L*a*b*, or other 3 component color schemes.  With CMYK, many colors can be created using different mixes of CMYK, which adds complexity, but also offers opportunities and flexibility, especially on press.
    Like I said at the beginning, this is a very deep and complex subject, and this only touches on the basics.
    Lou

  • Monitor color management: can somebody help? thx

    Strange thing happened today on my PC, I hope someone can help…
    Pdf files has strange color shift in Acrobat 8 and Reader 9 as well, Win XP. The change came suddenly. On other PCs the same files look fine. JPGs, video and other files are OK.
    I compared settings Preferences/Documents and /Color management and didn’t find any differences - all are defaults. I re-installed both programs, no change.
    Have a look at the picture, left is the correct version, right is from my PC: 
    Thanx for any suggestions
    Martin

    More than likely a corrupt monitor profile.
    Re-calibrate and profile your monitor (which will create a new monitor profile.)

  • Printing issues with Aperture 3 - color management

    I just made three prints of the same images, two with Aperture 3 that turned out very dark and off color, almost as it they were printed without color management or double profiles. I then printed the third by exporting the image to CS4 and printing with the same settings (rendering intend, printer settings and custom printer profile) and that print looks fine. Has anyone else run into similar problems with A#? I did not have this issue with Aperture 2.
    Thanks,
    Message was edited by: pcalvin

    I print on an Epson 2880 with Lyson inks and custom profiles. In Aperture 2 it worked perfectly, with exactly the same settings as for printing Photoshop - using the laboratory prescribed settings:perceptual and no black point compensation in Photoshop, and Adobe RGB Gamma 2.2 in the Print settings.
    Using the same profile and settings with Aperture 3, the colours are way, way off - exactly as described.
    I then tried with Aperture 3 turning off the Adobe RGB setting, so there was no colour space adjustment in the Print setting. This gave a slightly better result, but rather dead and slightly blue.
    I ran some tests with the GretagMacbeth colour chart used in preparing the profiles, which confirmed the above but also shows a lack of sharpness when printing from Aperture 3, and a blue border on three sides of the image - even though the border was set to 0.00. I have checked the printer head adjustments and run the test chart through Photoshop again to verify these are Aperture 3 artefacts.
    Unless this is resolved, it renders Aperture completely useless! (I have tried reinstalling printer drivers, to no effect).

  • Photoshop CS3 doesn't like "Lenovo ThinkPad LCD Monitor" color management profile

    When launching Photoshop CS3 Extended, I get a warning:
    The monitor profile "Lenovo ThinkPad LCD Monitor" appears to be defective. Please rerun your monitor calibration software.
    [Ignore Profile] [Use Anyway]
    If this can be confirmed, could it please be the target of a minor update/patch?
    This recent T61p 15.4" WSXGA+ notbook's monitor is honestly pretty bad in terms of color accuracy. The overall sense is very blue; yellows show up orange. Is this normal? But that's really a side issue. I do most of my work on an external monitor anyway.
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Thank you very kindly, Erik; my searches hadn't found that. However, my T61p appears to already have that software -- not surprising as that was released in December and this notebook was built about a month ago.
    I tried the instructions given, but Windows said my computer was already up-to-date. I suppose I could try uninstalling what the computer came with and reinstalling the download...
    [Edit 1]
    Ah, wait... I retried it from the device manager instead of display properties -- here, I could be sure I was picking the proper "monitor" (the display properties showed only my external monitor). It did instal... said I had version 4.0 and v 4.1 has the "fix" according to the readme.
    It wants me to reboot. I'll post again if somehow that didn't do it.
    Message Edited by davidhbrown on 04-21-2008 09:36 AM
    [Edit 2]
    Yes, indeed... Photoshop no longer complains. So, I wonder why this isn't in the software build or at least in the updates I've been faithfully downloading. But thanks again, Erik.
    Message Edited by davidhbrown on 04-21-2008 09:47 AM

  • Find my iPhone with MDM or Profile Manager question

    If a device such as an iPhone is enrolled in a mdm or in a profile manager can a user still use there own personal icloud account and if they leave without removing it will that lock the phone up or can we still unlock it

    yes they can use it.

  • Printing with HP B9180 and Photoshop Elements 8 and Color Management

     I've got a bit of confusion about certain settings in the printing process and I've posted a rather long discussion of my 'issues' and confusion.  I hope someone can give me some guidance here.  I've seen a lot of these issues addressed in many places but I can't seem to find an integrated response.  Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and respond.
    Color Management Questions
    My problems started when I was getting pictures that were too dark from my HP 9180 printer after having gotten very nice prints for a long time.  I had obviously started to do something differently inadvertently.  The only thing I think that is different is that I got a new 23 inch monitor, which does produce much brighter on-screen images.  So, I started to do some research and know just enough about color management to be slightly confused and have some questions that I hope someone can give me some help with.
    Equipment Background
    I use both a Canon 20D and a Canon PowerShot SD600 camera. Both have the default color space as sRGB, although the 20D can be also set as RGB.
    I also use Photoshop Elements 8, where there are a variety of settings possible for printing.
    My monitor is an HP S2331, whose color space is sRGB and cannot be reset to RGB (I think) except for temperature; the default is 6500K.
    My printer is an HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Printer, where there are also a variety of settings possible.
    I’m running XP-Pro.
    Here’s Where I Get Confused
    Everything I have read about color management (various web sites, forums, books, etc) says to have the image, monitor, and printer all in the same color space.
    Everything I read about PSE 8 (same sources) says to set PSE 8 to ‘Always Optimize for Printing’ under Edit>Color Settings in order to get the best prints.  This displays photos based on the Adobe RGB color space. 
    I am taking pictures in sRGB, and telling PSE 8 to process them in RGB by selecting ‘Always Optimize for Printing’.  Is this something I should be concerned about?  Should I reset my camera for RGB?
    Further, by selecting ‘Always Optimize for Printing’, I am setting PSE 8 for RGB while my monitor displays sRGB.  Is this an important issue or is it also much ado about technicalities that an amateur should not worry about?  It does violate the ‘keep them in the same color space’ rule.
    Next, when I go to File>Print and get the Print window and then do the Page Setup and Select Printer, I then go to More Options in the lower left of the window.  Under the More Options window, I select Color management and select Photoshop Elements Manages Colors.  Next, there is Image Space, which is fixed and not subject to selection from a drop down menu. 
    I understand that this is the image space of the image I took with my camera and that information is embedded in the image.  Correct?
    Next, there is Printer Profile.  But, from what I have read, this is where the IEC profile of the paper being printed on is supposed to be selected, isn’t it? 
    Shouldn’t this more appropriately be called Paper Profile, or Printing Media Profile?  Further, this drop down menu appears to be somewhat erratic, sometimes showing all of the paper profiles I believe are loaded, sometimes not. It also shows listings such as Working RGB-Adobe RGB (1988), Adobe RGB 1988, Dot Gain 10%, 15%.... along with a lot of paper profiles.  Aren’t those profiles unnecessary here?
    I’ve used both Relative Colorimetric and Perceptual Rendering and am happy with either one. 
    Next, when I go to Printer Preferences, in order to “…disable color management in the printer preferences dialog”, under the Color Tab, I select Application Managed Colors from the Color management drop down menu, and also have the option of selecting ColorSmart/sRGB and Adobe RGB (1988).  
    Is there any time when I should use either ColorSmart/sRGB or Adobe RGB  (1988)?  If I were staying with my camera’s sRGB setting, given the fact that the monitor is sRGB, would the appropriate selections be ‘Printer Manages Colors’ and ‘ColorSmart/sRGB’?
    Finally, under the Features Tab, I go to look for the same paper I selected under Printer Profile (Question 4 above).  If it is one of the pre-loaded (by HP) profiles, it is there, but if it is a profile I downloaded, say for an Ilford paper, it isn’t listed, and I need to guess at an equivalent type of paper to select.
    Is there any way to get that listing to appear under the Paper Type drop down menu?
    I know that this is a long post, but it helped me to clarify my ‘issues’.  Thank you for any and all suggestions, answers, guidance and help.

    RIK,
    Some printers have long names, esp. HP printers, and PSE gets ":confused." In control panel>devices and printers, right click on the default printer, go to printer properties, and rename the default printer to something short, e.g. "Our Printer." That may fix it..

Maybe you are looking for