PHOTOSHOP TURN COLOR MANAGEMENT OFF Emulate Photoshop 4 Tutorial www.gballard.net

Recipes for Disaster:
Turn Color Management Off — Emulate Photoshop4
Broken Color Management
In my lay style for lay Mac users (like me)
© 2003 www.gballard.net Main Site

Adobe Photoshop CS3 CS2 CS PS10 9 8 7 CS color management settings are found here:
Command+Shift+K (Edit> Color Settings) > Settings:

"Color Management Off"
"Emulate Photoshop 4"
"Web Graphics Defaults"
"North American General Purpose Defaults"
MonitorRGB = WorkingSpaces: RGB (The Ultimate Broken Workflow)

I cannot see one good reason for most of us to set the above preset workflows because these settings simply BREAK Photoshop's Color Management System (CMS). The problem is these color and policy settings leave Photoshop's Back Door gballard.net wide open.

In general, the only Settings that makes sense [to me] is "US PREPRESS DEFAULTS" and "North American Prepress 2" — specifically — for their fully–enabled Color Management Policies, Adobe (ACE) CMS Color Management System.

Even Photoshop's defaults — Web Graphics Default, North American General Purpose — are bad Settings, in my opinion, because they break Photoshop's color management by turning off vital Color Management Policies.

Call me crazy, but I want to know when my file is Untagged, Unknown, Mismatched, Preserved, Ignored, Assumed, Applied, Assigned and/or Converted — North American Prepress 2 and US PREPRESS DEFAULTS do that for me.

IF YOUR COLOR MANAGEMENT SETTINGS ARE GOOD, but Photoshop's color is incorrect, please see: Color Only Looks Bad in Photoshop gballard.net.

IN ACTUAL FACT, "You cannot turn Photoshop's Color Management Off " according to Photoshop color–management expert Andrew Rodney digitaldog.imagingrevue.com (and my lay understanding of the theory). Andrew's explanation is excerpted HERE gballard.net and includes HOW Photoshop 4 color works.

PROOF How Profiles and Color Management Work HERE in your color-managed web browser -- a side-by-side tutorial tutorial of tagged and untagged AppleRGB, sRGB, Adobe RGB (1998) aRGB and what happens to the color when the profile is stripped or ignored.

NOTE: Apple's Safari web browser is a color-managed web browser for both Apple Mac OSX and Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems. Read the color-management link for more information, including where to download Safari 3 for Microsoft Windows platforms.

TO UNDERSTAND HOW PHOTOSHOP ACTUALLY HANDLES COLOR, please see my ASSIGN PROFILE Vs CONVERT TO PROFILE for a free hands-on colormanagement tutorial online.

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WHAT IS Adobe RGB (1998)?

US PREPRESS DEFAULTS sets WorkingRGB to AdobeRGB — a device independent colorspace that is very different in appearance from any monitor profile.

US Prepress Defaults Embeds/Tags RGB files with the AdobeRGB colorspace.

When an AdobeRGB file opens in these broken Photoshop workflows:

• Photoshop's broken Color Management System (CMS) doesn't see the embedded Tag.
• Photoshop Assumes all RGB files are its WorkingRGB.
• Photoshop incorrectly Assigns its WorkingRGB to the file (and hoses the color the moment we open the file gballard.net.

• AdobeRGB (all RGB) needs to be Converted into MonitorRGB to render accurately on screen.
• AdobeRGB (all RGB) needs to be Converted into a SPECIFIC Printer/Paper/InkICC profile to render accurately on an ink–jet printer.
• AdobeRGB (all RGB) needs to be Converted into a TargetCMYK for accuracy.

What is Adobe RGB (1998) good for and not good for?:

• Adobe RGB (1998) is a specialized "high-gamut" device-independent ColorSpace for professional use in color-managed applications like Photoshop.
• The AdobeRGB ColorSpace, ICC Profile, ColorSync Profile has nothing to do with monitors or printers, this is why Adobe RGB displays and prints so bad when the profile is ignored.
• AdobeRGB is one of the worst ColorSpaces to use outside of ICC-savvy, color-managed workflows.
• NEVER SET YOUR MONITOR PROFILE TO ADOBE RGB.

MY POINT:
Adobe RGB is unsuitable for use outside of color-managed applications, including web browsers....

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The Nutshell:

The big difference in color "mapping" between AdobeRGB and monitor–type RGB ColorSpaces illustrates the problem with these broken workflows:

For example, if a RGB file was last saved in a monitor–type RGB colorspace:

• The "old–school" CMYK "numbers experts" — with their broken workflows (and unprofiled monitors) — allow Photoshop to misAssign (hose) the color upon opening the file, and then they start hammering the color back into normalcy (by targeting the numbers in the Info pallet to CMYK swatch books).

• This hammering is extremely destructive to the file's color information.
(This is the same color information we worked so hard to get right and PRESERVE).

Likewise, if the file was last saved in the device–independent AdobeRGB colorspace:

• These broken workflows misAssign (wreck) the color upon opening — by ignoring the Tag — and the CMYK "expert" goes to work on it with a SLEDGEHAMMER.

• Because AdobeRGB is so DRASTICALLY different in "mapping" from any monitor–type RGB — our color is virtually destroyed in these workflows, and the "expert" IGNORANTLY blames our good file.

It should be routine for these "old dogs" to TURN Color Management ON gballard.net, Honor the Tag, and Convert to TheirCMYK...but who am I to beat on an old dog?

Just BEWARE of their bite!

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Tagged/Embedded RGB:

It's safe to say the ONLY time a file's RGB colorspace becomes irrelevant to Photoshop is when:

The file (Tagged or Untagged) is based on the same ICC profile as WorkingRGB (the colorspace highlighted in Photoshop's ColorSettings> WorkingSpaces: RGB).

In The Ultimate Broken WorkFlow:
Tagged/UntaggedRGB = WorkingRGB = MonitorRGB

That "old school" workflow is simply disastrous to modern ICC–savvy workflows (and if we still don't understand — WHY — we need to ask around until we do)....

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FURTHER, base MonitorRGB on an inaccurate monitor profile — and the color situation gets even more hopeless.

In essence, balancing any file off an inaccurate monitor profile (MonitorRGB) "ties" the file to an inaccurate monitor profile — meaning — and this is super important:

The file will never look the same on any other monitor.
No monitor will be able to render the color you think you have at any point.
No printer will be able to render the color you think you have.
No Conversion to a target ICC profile or color space will ever render the color you think you have.

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The CONVERSION issue becomes clear when basic color management is understood:

MonitorRGB < TaggedFile > TargetICC/CMYK

In other words:
TaggedFile is CONVERTED to MonitorRGB.
TaggedFile is CONVERTED to a specific TargetICC or CMYK.

"Color Management Off" and these broken workflows simply do not understand any RGB or CMYK file outside of their specific WorkingRGB or WorkingCMYK.

These broken workflows do not honor the embedded profile or base any Conversions on the file's real SourceSpace — these broken workflows hose all RGB color (except as noted) and make it impossible for most of us to get an accurate Conversion to anything....

On the other hand, CMYK is a different beast (than RGB).

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Tagged/Embedded CMYK:

It's safe to say the ONLY time a file's CMYK Tag becomes relevant to Photoshop is to:

See the file's color accurately on a "calibrated" monitor — without a tag to base a Conversion on, the monitor color is not accurate to the file.
Convert the file accurately to another colorspace — without a tag, the CMS has no basis to compute a Conversion on.
To inspect the file's CMYK ink/separation formulae — what ever that means;)

Otherwise, the embedded CMYK Tag doesn't matter, I would think.

However, a file's RGB ColorSpace is vital, and must not to be ignored.

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CustomCMYK SOLUTION:

Calibrate/Profile the monitor (see my "Get a Good Screen").
Set Photoshop to US PREPRESS DEFAULTS.

Change WorkingCMYK to desired CMYK:

Set Us Prepress Defaults>
Working Spaces> CMYK (set desired CMYK)>
Immediately Save the new Color Setting with a name — so if anyone messes with it the name will change to "Custom."

THE POINT is to set US Prepress Defaults — to enable full ColorManagementPolicies, the Adobe(ACE) CMS, and WorkingRGB (AdobeRGB) — make the CMYK change ONLY to the desired WorkingCMYK, and Save it before any other Settings are changed.

That will enable a fully–functioning Photoshop Color Management System with a CustomCMYK, WorkingCMYK — if we don't want the default "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2" (WorkingCMYK), for example.

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