Profiles and effect on printing?

P
Posted By
PrincessFromOz
Dec 18, 2008
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257
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2
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Does setting the profiles under colour settings alter end image when printed on a printing press or is it just how the colours are viewed on screen?

If I change a profile that is embedded to the one I want will it make any difference to the way the colours print (from the way it printed with the previous profile)?

Thanks

Sal
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PF
Peter_Figen
Dec 18, 2008
"Does setting the profiles under colour settings alter end image when printed on a printing press or is it just how the colours are viewed on screen?"

If your image already has a press profile embedded in it, typically that is the one that will be used to display your image, regardless of what you color settings actually are set to. Just changing the color settings does nothing unless you are doing a blind Mode Change from RGB to CMYK, in which case, you would want to make sure the correct profile was indeed loaded.

‘If I change a profile that is embedded to the one I want will it make any difference to the way the colours print (from the way it printed with the previous profile)?"

It depends on whether you convert to the new profile or assign it. You’re not stating in your question how you’re arriving at the new profile. If you are Assigning the new profile, it will depend on how different it is from the old one, as to how much difference there will be. If you are converting, there should be very little difference.
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C
Curvemeister
Dec 18, 2008
On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:26:28 -0800, wrote:

Does setting the profiles under colour settings alter end image when printed on a printing press or is it just how the colours are viewed on screen?

As Peter says, Color Settings dialog does not affect existing images. It sets the defaults for new documents, and for default conversions from one color space to another – for example from RGB to CMYK, and gray scale conversions.

There is an important distinction between assigning a profile (which changes appearance of the colors), and converting to a profile (which preserves the appearance).

If I change a profile that is embedded to the one I want will it make any difference to the way the colours print (from the way it printed with the previous profile)?

Yes, for RGB images the embedded profile determines how the colors will be interpreted by the next step in the work flow. For example, an Adobe RGB file will be interpreted as having more saturated colors than an sRGB file.

This is all speaking of RGB. If you are providing a CMYK file, it’s a different story.

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