Obtaining, installing, and updating color profiles


    Precise, consistent color management requires accurate ICC-compliant profiles of all of your color devices. For example, without an accurate scanner profile, a perfectly scanned image may appear incorrect in another program, simply due to any difference in gamuts between the scanner and the program displaying the image. This misleading representation may cause you to make unnecessary, time-wasting, and potentially damaging "corrections" to an already satisfactory image. With an accurate profile, a program importing the image can correct for any gamut differences and display a scan's actual colors.

    Once you obtain accurate profiles, they will work with all applications that are compatible with your color-management system. You can obtain profiles in the following ways, with the most precise methods listed first:

    • Generate profiles customized for your specific devices using professional profiling equipment.
    • Check with your service provider. Some providers will use their equipment to create a profile for your equipment.
    • Obtain a profile created by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, such profiles do not account for individual variations that naturally occur among machines (even identical models from the same manufacturer) or from age.
    • Substitute an available profile that may be appropriate given information you have about the device's gamut. For example, many Mac OS scanners have been optimized for an Apple RGB monitor gamut, so you might try using an Apple monitor profile for these devices. Be sure to proof images created with the profile before using the profile in production. This workaround is unlikely to produce results suitable for professionally color-managed work.

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