Which Color profile for softprofing to print to Apple's book services?

Question

I'm looking for a simple, specific and official answer as to which specific ColorSync profile should I choose for 'Onscreen Proofing' in Aperture? My intended output is Apples Print Services (Hardcover book).
I've crawled the web looking for this simple answer with no luck.
It seems to me that this profile (ie an accurate characterization of Apple's Printing Services) should be at the top of the list (in View/Proofing Profile/). Instead all I could find are discussion forums which hint or guess as to which profile to use.
Alternatively. It should be documented in the manual or the "How to create great looking books?" articles something like: "If you are going to order a book from Apple, then choose the sRGB profile for onscreen proofing. Apple's services are calibrated to this profile and guarantee consistent results". <-- Something like this appears nowhere!
So again. I'm printing my books ($$$) on Apple. Which Proofing profile should I choose?

Answer 1

I'm looking for a simple, specific and official answer as to which specific ColorSync profile should I choose for 'Onscreen Proofing' in Aperture? ... Alternatively. It should be documented in the manual or the "How to create great looking books?" articles something like: "If you are going to order a book from Apple, then choose the sRGB profile for onscreen proofing. Apple's services are calibrated to this profile and guarantee consistent results".
Not sRGB, argghhh -:)
In a colour matching conversion, you have a source colour space (in this case, your ICC type MNTR Monitor profile for your RGB working space) and a destination colour space (in this case an unknown ICC profile, probably of type PRTR Printer).
Your aim in the ICC architecture is to capture into and correct in as large a source colour space as is necessary to contain the colours you can render on the largest colour spaces of displays, printers and presses. This excludes sRGB as source by definition.
The sRGB colour space is the colour space of an HDTV cathode ray tube. This colour space cannot hold colours a lot of output devices can render, including the pure cyan of an ISO 12647 offset printing condition on art paper, and for inkjet sRGB is even worse as source.
Open the Apple ColorSync Utility, select sRGB in the RGB profiles list, click the Disclosure (triangle) icon in the CIELa*b plot, and select Hold for Comparison. Then pick an inkjet profile in the RGB profiles list or a large gamut offset profile in the CMYK profiles list, and turn the 3D graphic to see what can be matched directly and what can be matched only by reshaping the colours.
PDF printing masters can either have only the source ICC profile(s) embedded or both the source and destination ICC profiles. In the former case, the colour matching is done at runtime and you have to wait to see what prints.
In the latter case, you embed the destination ICC profile as OutputIntent and submit PDF/X-3. Since you are allowed to embed either type PRTR Printer or type MNTR Monitor profiles as OutputIntent, and since both are bidirectional for printing as well as for proofing, you have a contract proofing condition.
But in order to work with PDF/X-3 you need to know enough about rendering intents and gamut mapping behaviours that you don't set the wrong rendering intent per object in the page. So a runtime rendering workflow ensures that you get to draw to the maximum gamut available in the printing service, without giving you advanced controls.
/hh