Customizing color management settings

Although the predefined settings should provide sufficient color management for many workflows, you may want to customize individual options in a configuration. For example, you might want to change the CMYK working space to a profile that matches the proofing system used by your desktop printer or your prepress service.

It's important to save your custom configurations so that you can reuse and share them with other users and Adobe applications that use the same color management workflows. The color management settings that you customize in the Color Settings dialog box are contained in an associated preferences file called Color Settings.

Note: The default location of the Color Settings file varies by operating system. In Windows XP, it is Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Adobe/Photoshop/8.0/Adobe Photoshop CS Settings/Color Settings.csf. In Mac OS, it is Users/user profile/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CS Settings/Color Settings.csf.

To customize color management settings:

1. Do one of the following:
• In Windows, choose Edit > Color Settings.
• In Mac OS, choose Photoshop > Color Settings.
2. To use a preset color management configuration as the starting point for your customization, choose that configuration from the Settings menu.
3. Specify the desired color settings (working spaces and policies). As you make adjustments, the Settings menu option changes to Custom by default.

For detailed customization instructions, see About working spaces and Specifying color management policies.

4. (Optional) Select Advanced Mode for more options in the Color Settings dialog box.
5. If necessary, under Conversion Options, choose a CMM, a rendering intent, and whether color management converts the color values in an image using black point compensation and dither. For more information on these options, see About the Color Management Module (CMM), Handling colors with a rendering intent, Using black point compensation, and Using dither.
6. If necessary, under Advanced Controls, specify how much to desaturate the colors on a monitor and what gamma to use for the RGB blend. For more information on these options, see Desaturating monitor colors and Blending RGB colors.
7. Save your custom configuration so that it can be reused. (See Saving and loading color management settings.)

Note: Saving your custom configuration is important to synchronize the color management settings in Photoshop with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Acrobat. (See Keeping color consistent between Photoshop and other Adobe applications.)