"You cannot turn Photoshop’s Color Management off (since version 5)"

GB
Posted By
g_ballard
Jun 29, 2004
Views
244
Replies
12
Status
Closed
I recall Andrew Rodney wrote those imortal words here in this foum.

My question is: Do we really need the "since version 5"?

I mean, if we feed v4 Adobe RGB (1998), it hosed, right?
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GB
g_ballard
Jun 29, 2004
I don’t see how any version can actually turn color management off?
GB
g_ballard
Jun 29, 2004
I would think "you never could turn CM off" would be good, but then, who knows
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jun 29, 2004
g,

I’ve often wondered the same. I read way back when PS 5 first came out, the whole implementation and definition of CM changed drastically from PS 4. Not only was the monitor taken out of the loop, but the very algorithms and color engine in defining color changed as well.

Remember they changed the meaning of 20% dot gain for example. I sometimes forget that part when going back to PS 4 or selecting it as a working space in PS 7.

I’m not sure when you turn CM off what part of the engine or algorithm it changes or keeps in between 4 and 5. PS 5 was a big change for everybody especially for commercial shops using legacy equipment and files. I believe this is why CM off has more meaning than one might think.
GB
g_ballard
Jun 29, 2004
commercial shops using legacy equipment and files

Ya, they were mostly working and editing in their MonitorRGB with one CMYK setup in a "cave" enviromnent?

I don’t know if the lay or genius user would consider that "color management off" but it seems color management would always be ON regardless (how could it Convert to CMYK?) — in any case color management would become an issue the moment they opened someone else’s file…

I have to wonder if I could edit the "(since version 5)" out of Mr. Rodney’s quote and still be accurate to his point?
GB
g_ballard
Jun 29, 2004
or if "(since version 5)" was his point?

Ah, it’s tough having a pea brain here and a neurosis for the rocket science…
AR
Andrew Rodney
Jun 30, 2004
Photoshop 4 (and earlier) operated quite differently (duh) then Photoshop since in that all images were such that the numbers in the doc’s were simply sent straight to the display.

If you sent an Adobe RGB 1998 file to Photoshop 4, it would look pretty ugly (like how it appears in a dumb web browser) plus every user would see the same numbers differently.

In Photoshop 4 (and older), conversions from RGB to CMYK were assumed to be based upon your display (if you happen to even have an accurate Monitor preference file based on your display). Most users just had a preference that wasn’t based on anything other than what got installed. What this means is even if you did calibrate say using the good old Radius Pressview (which had the option to save out a custom monitor preference file), any user who produced a CMYK conversion could not be insured that the same RGB doc would produce the same CMYK numbers even if they used the same separation setup (since the source plays a role in the destination and in this case, the source is based on your individual display). So CMYK conversions from PS4 and earlier could be rather chaotic in a mixed user environment.

Anyway, since PS5, the architecture has been such that Photoshop always makes some assumption about the numbers for previewing and conversions using ICC profiles. You can try and turn it off but it’s always looking for a display profile for previews along with an embedded profile in a document. Even if you strip out the profile, Photoshop is still going to make a guess about the numbers, again based on some ICC profile.

Prior to PS5, ICC profiles didn’t enter the picture. You could have Photoshop ignore just about anything to do with color (it did of course have to make some assumption about RGB to make CMYK but this was based on the old Monitor preference). Other than that, Photoshop 4 would happily send the raw RGB numbers to a display that might or might not have been calibrated on a system that might or might not have an ICC profile for that display. That’s no longer the case after PS5.
MO
Mike_Ornellas
Jun 30, 2004
rocks to plug the holes in the bucket.

how come I’m still all wet?
GB
g_ballard
Jul 4, 2004
Andrew,

That’s great 🙂
IL
Ian_Lyons
Jul 4, 2004
how come I’m still all wet?

It wasn’t a hole in the bucket – you peed on yourself 😉
MO
Mike_Ornellas
Jul 4, 2004
that’s nice!

anyone got a towel?
GB
g_ballard
Jul 4, 2004
you get peed on?
MO
Mike_Ornellas
Jul 4, 2004
often.

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