Setting color management printing options


    When you print a color-managed RGB or CMYK document, the Color Management options in the Print dialog box let you specify additional color-management options to keep color consistent in the printer output. For example, suppose that your document currently contains a profile tailored for prepress output, but you want to proof the document colors on a desktop printer. In the Print dialog box, you can convert the document's colors to the color space of the desktop printer; the printer profile will be used instead of the current document profile when printing. Because various RGB profiles are available in the Print dialog box, you can send color data as RGB values to printers.

    When printing to a PostScript printer, you also have the option of using PostScript color management. In this workflow, Illustrator sends the document's color data along with the document profile directly to the PostScript printer and lets the printer convert the document to the printer color space. The exact results of the color conversion can vary among printers. To use PostScript color management, you must have a printer that uses PostScript Level 2 or later; it is not necessary to install an ICC profile for the printer on your system.

    Note: PostScript color management is not recommended when printing files that contain transparency.

    For information on profiles and color-managed workflows, see About color management.

    Important: In order to use these options, make sure you've set up your document for color management with the Color Settings dialog box. (See Setting up color management.)

    You can set the following Graphics option in the Print dialog box:

    Profile

    Specifies which color management profile to use.

    • Same As Source prints using the document's current color profile. No conversions will be performed on the colors of the document when it is printed.
    • PostScript Color Management prints to a PostScript printer and has colors managed at the level of the printer.
    • The other profiles print using the named destination profile. (See Specifying working spaces.)

    Note: If you are color-managing artwork in a document, embedded PDF and EPS images are part of the document and therefore color-managed when sent to a printing device. In contrast, linked PDF and EPS images are not color-managed, even if color management is turned on for the rest of the document.

    Intent

    Specifies the rendering intent to use when converting colors to the destination profile space. For more information, see Specifying a rendering intent.