Producing Consistent Color

(from Adobe Photoshop CS Tutorial: Producing Consistent Color)

(Top) 

See Below:

Basic steps for producing consistent color in Adobe Photoshop

Producing consistent color with a desktop printer

Producing consistent color when creating images for the Web

Producing consistent color when sending images to press

 

Basic steps for producing consistent color in Adobe Photoshop:

A color management system is built into Photoshop. To use Photoshop's color management system successfully, you will need to follow some basic steps.

To start managing the color in your workflow:

1.Calibrate your monitor. Use a visual calibration method, like Adobe Gamma (Windows) or Monitor Calibrator (Mac OS), or use third-party software and hardware for more accurate calibration.

2.Specify the color settings when you first launch Photoshop. The color settings in the Photoshop Color Settings dialog box control how the color management system works with RGB, CMYK, and grayscale images.

  • When first launching Photoshop, an alert will tell you that the color settings will be configured using default settings (Web Graphics Defaults) and ask if you wish to customize the color settings. Do one of the following:

  • Click No to accept the default settings. Keep in mind that the default settings might be appropriate for keeping colors consistent when images are viewed on a computer monitor, but may not be optimum for printing images.

  • Note: Although you don't have to customize the color settings when first launching Photoshop, it's recommended that you do. The choices you make in the Color Settings dialog box influence how the colors in images are displayed.

  • For better control of the Photoshop color management system, click Yes to customize the color settings in Photoshop when first launching the program. This opens the Color Settings dialog box. In the Color Settings dialog box, choose a preset option from the Settings menu. If your image is to be printed on a desktop printer or a printing press, choose one of the prepress defaults that's relevant to your geographic location. For example, if you're in the United States, you would choose U.S. Prepress Defaults.

  • For the maximum control of the Photoshop color management system, click Yes to customize the color settings in Photoshop when first launching the program. This opens the Color Settings dialog box. In the Color Settings dialog box, select the Advanced Mode option and specify the individual settings.

  • Note: The Color Settings dialog box is not just accessible the first time you launch Photoshop. You can access the Color Settings dialog box at any time by choosing (Windows) Edit > Color Settings or (Mac OS) Photoshop > Color Settings.

  • It is important to use the same color settings in other color-managed applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat® in order to make your color consistent between the applications. Keep in mind that colors will probably not match between color-managed applications and non-color-managed applications. For more information about synchronizing color settings between color-managed Adobe applications, see Keeping color consistent between Photoshop and other Adobe applications.

3.Create or acquire profiles of devices in your workflow, such as your desktop printer. The Photoshop color management system needs to know the behavior of the devices in your workflow in order to properly convert the color values in a document so the devices produce consistent color. Common ways to obtain a profile include:

  • Installing the driver for your desktop printer. When you install the printer driver, a profile is usually installed in your computer system. The color management system can access this profile so it will appear as a color management option when you print from Photoshop.

  • Creating a profile using a third-party measuring instrument and software. This method can create a more accurate descriptions of the behavior of specific devices.

  • Note: You should also make separate profiles for every type of paper used with your desktop printer. A glossy paper is capable of displaying a different range of colors than a matte paper. Use a third-party measuring instrument and software to generate custom paper profiles.

4.                  Incorporate color management into your various workflows. Having a calibrated monitor and profiles is useless unless you know how to utilize them:

Producing consistent color with a desktop printer

Using a color-managed workflow, you can control the appearance of colors in your document so they remain the same or similar when the document is printed on a desktop printer.

Illustration of Desktop printer workflow with these callouts: A. Photoshop handling the color management; usually a custom profile is chosen from the Profile menu B. Printer driver handling the color management

Desktop printer workflow A. Photoshop handling the color management; usually a custom profile is chosen from the Profile menu B. Printer driver handling the color management

To color manage your document for output on a desktop printer:

Set up your devices for color management

Calibrate your monitor and create a profile for it. Use Adobe Gamma (Windows), Monitor Calibrator (Mac OS) or, for more precise calibration, use third-party software and hardware. If profiles came with your printer, make sure they're installed on your computer. For important color work, it's highly recommended that you create custom profiles for each type of paper that you use with the printer.

Set up the Photoshop color management system

Choose Edit > Color Settings (Windows) or Photoshop > Color Settings (Mac OS) to specify the color management settings. You can either choose a preset from the Settings menu in the Color Settings dialog box or customize the settings. At the very least, you should choose one of the Prepress Default settings, which specifies Adobe RGB (1998) as the RGB working space. Adobe RGB (1998) is a large enough color space to encompass the colors used in printing. In general, it's not advised to use sRGB as the working space, since it's smaller and may not contain important colors that can be printed.

Edit your image in Photoshop

Depending on the color management policy you choose, you will be editing the image in either the current RGB working space or in the working space profile embedded in the document. The choice of whether to convert a document to the RGB working space or preserve its embedded profile is a personal decision. For instance, if you feel that Adobe RGB is a suitable working space for all images that you print, you might consider choosing Adobe RGB as your RGB working space, and then choose the Convert to Working Space policy and always working in Adobe RGB.

(Optional) Soft proof your image

If you want to see a simulation of your final printed image, use the Proof Setup command and choose the printer's profile. Your monitor will display the image in the color space of your desktop printer. For the most accurate soft proof, choose a profile for the specific paper you're printing on.

Use Print with Preview

Choose File > Print with Preview. In the Print dialog box:

  • Select Show More Options and choose Color Management from the pop-up menu.

  • In the Source Space area, Choose Document (unless you're printing a hard copy of the soft proof).

  • In the Print Space area, choose the profile of your printer or your custom profile of a specific printer/paper combination. Photoshop will handle the color management during printing. Choose Printer Color Management if your printer driver is handling the color management during printing.

  • Also in the Print Space area, choose a rendering intent. Generally, Relative Colorimetric or Perceptual are the most common intents used for photographic images because they preserve the overall appearance of a document's colors when printed.

Set printer options

Click the Print button in the Print dialog box (for the Print with Preview command) to open a second Print dialog box (for setting printer options). The options available in the printer options dialog box depend on the printer drivers installed on your computer. On Windows, click the Properties button to access the printer driver options. On Mac OS, use the pop-up menu to access the printer driver options. Set the print options for the quality you want. If Photoshop is handling the color adjustment or color management options during printing, turn off all printer driver color adjustment options. If not, specify the color management settings to let your printer driver handle the color management during printing. It's important not to color manage in both Photoshop and the printer driver simultaneously during printing. This results in unpredictable color. (Back to Top)

 

Producing consistent color when creating images for the Web

Keeping colors consistent in images for the Web is a challenge. You have control over how your images display on your monitor, but you have no control over how they will display on other monitors. Additionally, most browsers do not recognize a document's embedded profile. They simply send the raw RGB values to your monitor. Without a profile, a computer's color management system must guess what colors a document's RGB values actually represent. Although it may seem impossible to produce consistent colors in an image for the Web, there are a few things you can do to keep the colors as consistent as possible.

To keep colors as consistent as possible in Web images:

Set up your monitor for a color-managed workflow

Calibrate and profile your monitor. Use a visual calibrator like Adobe Gamma (Windows), Monitor Calibrator (Mac OS) or, for more precision, use third-party software and hardware.

Set up color management in Photoshop

Choose Edit > Color Settings (Windows) or Photoshop > Color Settings (Mac OS) and specify the color management settings. You can either choose Web Graphics Defaults from the Settings menu in the Color Settings dialog box or customize the settings. If you prefer not to use the preset option, it's recommended that you at least use sRGB for your working space. sRGB is a smaller color space than Adobe RGB (1998) and supposedly represents the profile of the average monitor. Tagging your image with an sRGB profile increases the possibility that more monitors will correctly display the colors in your image.

(Optional) Convert the document to sRGB profile

If you have an image that's tagged with a profile other than sRGB, you can convert profile to sRGB so that the colors have a chance of maintaining a consistent appearance on a wide variety of monitors. Choose Image > Mode > Convert to Profile and choose sRGB for Profile under Destination Space.

Save for Web

Choose File > Save for Web. The Save for Web command gives you more control over the optimization of your image. You can specify the colors that are preserved when saving an image in GIF or PNG-8 format. In JPEG format, you have the option of embedding an ICC profile in the file. Currently, only Internet Explorer (Mac OS) and OmniWeb (Mac OS) can read embedded profiles in images if the user enables the ColorSync option in the preferences. If an image has no embedded profile, Internet Explorer (Mac OS) and OmniWeb (Mac OS) assume an sRGB profile for the image. (Back to Top)

 

Producing consistent color when sending images to press

Using a color-managed workflow, you can control the appearance of colors in your document so they remain the same or similar when the document is sent out to be printed on a printing press.

To color manage your document for output on a printing press:

Set up your devices for color management

Calibrate your monitor and create a profile for it. Use Adobe Gamma (Windows), Monitor Calibrator (Mac OS) or, for more precise calibration, use third-party software and hardware. If profiles came with your printer, make sure they're installed on your computer. For important color work, it's highly recommended that you create custom profiles for each type of paper that you use with the printer.

Set up the Photoshop color management system

Choose Edit > Color Settings (Windows) or Photoshop > Color Settings (Mac OS) to specify the color management settings. You can either choose a preset from the Settings menu in the Color Settings dialog box or customize the settings. At the very least, you should choose one of the Prepress Default settings, which specifies Adobe RGB (1998) as the RGB working space. Adobe RGB (1998) is a large enough color space to encompass the colors used in printing. In general, it's not advised to use sRGB as the working space since it's smaller and may not contain important colors that can be printed.

Synchronize the color settings between Photoshop and Illustrator or InDesign

If you plan to place your Photoshop image in an Illustrator or InDesign document, make sure the color settings are synchronized using the Color Settings dialog box in each application. For more information on keeping colors consistent between Photoshop and other Adobe applications, see Keeping color consistent between Photoshop and other Adobe applications.

Edit your image in Photoshop

Depending on the color management policy you choose, you will be editing the image in either the current RGB working space or in the working space profile embedded in the document. The choice of whether to convert a document to the RGB working space or preserve its embedded profile is a personal decision. For instance, if you feel that Adobe RGB is a suitable working space for all images that you print, you might consider choosing Adobe RGB as your RGB working space, and then choose the Convert to Working Space policy and always working in Adobe RGB.

(Optional) Place your RGB or CMYK image in Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator

In general, most images printed on a commercial press are not printed directly from Photoshop but from a page-layout program like Adobe InDesign or a print-savvy program like Adobe Illustrator. For more information on importing Photoshop files into Adobe InDesign or Adobe Illustrator, see Adobe InDesign Help or Adobe Illustrator Help.

(Optional) Work entirely in RGB mode

Make sure the image file is tagged with the RGB working space profile. If your printer or prepress vendor uses a color management system, he or she should be able to use your file's profile to make an accurate conversion to CMYK for producing the film and printing plates.

(Optional) Convert to CMYK

Work in RGB mode until you finish with your image editing. After editing, convert the image to CMYK mode and make any additional color and tonal adjustments. Be sure to check the highlight and shadow areas of the image. If necessary, use the Levels, Curves, or Hue/Saturation command to make tonal corrections. These image adjustments should be very minor. After making final adjustments, send the CMYK file to your print house or prepress.

(Back to Top)

 

  
 

Color Home Page

Department of Communication, Seton Hall University