ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 9

USING PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 9
Understanding color
186
Profiling devices
For color management to work, you must profile your devices or use an ICC profile created by the device’s
manufacturer.
Capture devices Profiling is not critical for capture devices such as digital cameras or scanners. You may want to
profile a scanner, however, if you want to accurately reproduce the colors in scanned transparencies, and reduce your
color correction workload in Photoshop Elements.
Monitors Calibrating and profiling your monitor is important. If you are using a laptop or other LCD monitor, you
can use the profile provided by the manufacturer. If you own a colorimeter and corresponding software to create
profiles, you can use those profiles in Photoshop Elements.
Printers Profiling your inkjet printer will generally give you better results, though you can make excellent prints
without a printer profile by using the controls in your printer driver. Many printer manufacturers provide ICC printer
profiles on their websites. You need a separate profile for each printer, ink, and type of paper. You can also have
profiles made for your favorite combination of ink and paper.
When you work on a photo and save it, Photoshop Elements can embed (tag) an ICC profile that reflects the colors on
your computer monitor or the device that produced it. Embedding profiles with an image makes its color portable, so
that different devices can translate its color values. For example, if you send the photo to your inkjet printer, the color
management system reads the embedded profile and translates the color data using the printer’s profile. Your printer
can then use the translated color data to accurately translate its color into the selected media.
Color management tasks
If you want to use color management, you need to perform the following tasks:
• Set up color management by embedding a color profile and using device profiles when scanning or printing. (See
“Set up color management” on page 186.)
• Calibrate and profile your computer monitor. If you use an LCD monitor, use the profile that came with your
monitor. See your LCD monitor documentation for instructions.
• When you print an image from Photoshop Elements, make sure that the correct color profile is specified in the
Color Management area of the Print dialog box. Or, if you don’t have a printer profile, specify colors using the color
controls in the printer driver. In addition, choose a color setting that’s appropriate for your workflow, such as
Optimize For Printing.
Set up color management
1 In the Edit workspace, choose Edit > Color Settings.
2 Select one of the following color management options, then click OK.
No Color Management Leaves your image untagged. This option uses your monitor profile as the working space. It
removes any embedded profiles when opening images, and does not tag when saving.
Always Optimize Colors For Computer Screens Uses sRGB as the RGB working space; the Grayscale working space is
Gray Gamma 2.2. This option preserves embedded profiles, and assigns sRGB when opening untagged files.
Always Optimize For Printing Uses Adobe RGB as the RGB working space; the Grayscale working space is Dot Gain
20%. This option preserves embedded profiles and assigns Adobe RGB when opening untagged files.
Allow Me To Choose Lets you choose sRGB (the default) or Adobe RGB when opening untagged files.
3 When you save a file, select ICC Profile in the Save As dialog box.
Last updated 1/27/2011