Can someone please explain, laypersons’ terms, the difference between these two options–I’ve been using PS for quite a few years and never really understood the difference. (Currenty using CS1)
Mosly, I want to assign/convert my camera images shot in Adobe RGB to an sRGB profile so that sharing and viewing them on the web will be more consistent.
Assign: the user "tells" PS what profile to use on a file. The RGB (or CMYK) numbers stay the same, but they are interpreted differently this usually results in a change in appearance on the screen. An RGB profile can only be assigned to an RGB file, a CMYK profile to a CMYK file
Convert: PS converts form one colour space to another. the RGB or CMYK number change. There is usually no or very little change in the appearance of the file (except for out of gammut colours). An RGB file may be convert to another RGB profile or to a CMYK profile
Cyber Nomad, I don’t fully understand your explaination of Assign; it makes me think its a temporary state, that you’re only assigning a different profile for the time you’re working on the file? Or???
Here’s the difference in a nutshell: Convert to Profile is used with "good" files, whereas Assign Profile is used with "bad" files.
Assign Profile is used to fix one of two problems:
(1) You opened an image that for whatever reason, has no color profile information in it. If you know what color profile should be associated with the image, you can use Assign Profile to fix this.
(2) You opened an image that has color profile information, but it has the *wrong* profile (there are several ways this can happen). If you know what profile the image should have, you can use Assign Profile to fix it.
Once you have a good file (that is, it has the correct color profile) you can use Convert to Profile to convert the image to a different color space. There are a number of reasons why you might want to do this, the one you mentioned (converting to sRGB for the web) is one of the most common.
Oops…I missed this duplicate thread and posted my reply in the first, if a moderator could merge them or perhaps even delete the other, since my reply doesn’t add much beyond what has been said here already.
Paul, Daryl, et al, thanks for response. I’m still a bit fuzzy on this, but I gather that Convert is what I want to use, and yes, I am doing this on a duplicate that I’m creating in Save for Web. I always save the "original" as a .psd file and don’t change the Adobe RGB profile (or is it a color space, gosh I don’t know?).
And in laypersons’ terms, here’s what I’ve gleaned: I am an image file wandering around with amnesia, and I don’t remember my name/profile, so someone "assigns" one to me, David Doe. A bit later I find that when I share my name on the web, not everyone can pronounce it, so I "convert" it to David sRGB. Or some such rot.
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