Creative Adobe Suite 5 Manual

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Simulate Black Ink Simulates the dark gray you really get instead of a solid black on many printers, according to the 
proof profile. Not all profiles support this option.
In Photoshop, if you want the custom proof setup to be the default proof setup for documents, close all document 
windows before choosing the View > Proof Setup > Custom command. 
Soft-proof for color blindness (Photoshop and Illustrator)
Color Universal Design (CUD) ensures that graphical information is conveyed accurately to people with various types 
of color vision, including people with color blindness. Several countries have guidelines that require CUD-compliant 
graphics in public spaces.
The most common types of color blindness are protanopia (reduced sensitivity to red) and deuteranopia (reduced 
sensitivity to green). A third of color blind people are affected strongly; the remainder have milder forms of color 
blindness.
Adjusting design for color blindnessA. Original image  B. Color-blind proof  C. Optimized design  
To determine whether a document is CUD-compliant, do the following:
1Convert the document to RGB color mode, which provides the most accurate soft-proofs for color blindness.
2(Optional) To simultaneously view the original document and a soft-proof, choose Window > New Window 
(Illustrator) or Window > Arrange > New Window (Photoshop).
3Choose View > Proof Setup > Color Blindness, and then choose either Protanopia-type or Deuteranopia-type. (To 
comply with CUD, check your document in both views.)
In Photoshop, you can print the proof. For more information, search for “Print a hard proof” in Photoshop Help. 
If objects are difficult to distinguish in color blind proofs, adjust the design by doing any of the following:
Change color brightness or hue: 
Pure red tends to appear dark and muddy; orange-red is easier to recognize. 
Bluish green is less confusing than yellowish green. 
Gray may be confused with magenta, pale pink, pale green, or emerald green.
Avoid the following combinations: red and green; yellow and bright green; light blue and pink; dark blue and 
violet.
Avoid red items on dark-colored backgrounds, or white items on yellow or orange-red backgrounds.
Apply different patterns or shapes.
Add white, black, or dark-colored borders on color boundaries.
Use different font families or styles.
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Save or load a custom proof setup (Photoshop, InDesign)
1Choose View > Proof Setup > Custom.
2Do either of the following:
To save a custom proof setup, click Save. To ensure that the new preset appears in the View > Proof Setup menu, 
save the preset in the default location.
To load a custom proof setup, click Load.
Soft-proof colors (Acrobat)
1Do one of the following, depending on your version of Acrobat:
(Acrobat 9) Choose Advanced > Print Production > Output Preview.
(Acrobat X) Choose Tools > Print Production > Output Preview.
2Choose the color profile of a specific output device from the Simulation Profile menu.
3Choose a soft-proof option:
Simulate Black Ink Simulates the dark gray you really get instead of a solid black on many printers, according to the 
proof profile. Not all profiles support this option.
Simulate Paper Color Simulates the dingy white of real paper, according to the proof profile. Not all profiles support 
this option.
Color-managing documents when printing
Printing with color management
Color management options for printing let you specify how you want Adobe applications to handle the outgoing 
image data so the printer will print colors consistent with what you see on your monitor. Your options for printing 
color-managed documents depend on the Adobe application you use, as well as the output device you select. In 
general, you have the following choices for handling colors during printing:
Let the printer determine colors. 
Let the application determine colors. 
(InDesign) Do not use color management. In this workflow, no color conversion occurs. You may also need to turn 
off color management in your printer driver. This method is useful primarily for printing test targets or generating 
custom profiles. 
Letting the printer determine colors when printing
In this workflow, the application does the minimum color conversion required to get the document into a color space 
that the printer supports. For example, when printing CMYK or duotone images to a desktop inkjet, the application 
converts to RGB or Lab color, depending upon printer support.
This method is especially convenient when printing to inkjet photo printers, because each combination of paper type, 
printing resolution, and additional printing parameters (such as high-speed printing) requires a different profile. Most 
new inkjet photo printers come with fairly accurate profiles built into the driver, so letting the printer select the right 
profile saves time and alleviates mistakes. This method is also recommended if you are not familiar with color 
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If you choose this method, it is very important that you set up printing options and turn on color management in your 
printer driver. Search Help for additional instructions.
If you select a PostScript printer, you can take advantage of PostScript color management. PostScript color 
management makes it possible to perform color composite output or color separations at the raster image processor 
(RIP)—a process called in-RIP separations—so that a program need only specify parameters for separation and let the 
device calculate the final color values. PostScript color-managed output workflows require an output device that 
supports PostScript color management using PostScript Level 2 version 2017 or later, or PostScript Lanuage Level 3.
Letting the application determine colors when printing
In this workflow, the application does all the color conversion, generating color data specific to one output device. The 
application uses the assigned color profiles to convert colors to the output device’s gamut, and sends the resulting 
values to the output device. The accuracy of this method depends on the accuracy of the printer profile you select. Use 
this workflow when you have custom ICC profiles for each specific printer, ink, and paper combination. 
If you choose this option, it is very important that you disable color management in your printer driver. Letting the 
application and the printer driver simultaneously manage colors during printing results in unpredictable color. Search 
Help for additional instructions.
Obtaining custom profiles for desktop printers
If the output profiles that come with your printer don’t produce satisfactory results, you obtain custom profiles in the 
following ways:
Purchase a profile for your type of printer and paper. This is usually the easiest and least expensive method.
Purchase a profile for your specific printer and paper. This method involves printing a profiling target on your 
printer and paper, and providing that target to a company that will create a specific profile. This is more expensive 
than purchasing a standard profile, but can provide better results because it compensates for any manufacturing 
variations in printers.
Create your own profile using a scanner-based system. This method involves using profile-creation software and 
your own flatbed scanner to scan the profiling target. It can provide excellent results for matte surface papers, but 
not glossy papers. (Glossy papers tend to have fluorescent brighteners in them that look different to a scanner than 
they do in room light.)
Create your own profile using a hardware profile-creation tool. This method is expensive but can provide the best 
results. A good hardware tool can create an accurate profile even with glossy papers.
Tweak a profile created using one of the previous methods with profile-editing software. This software can be 
complex to use, but it lets you correct problems with a profile or simply adjust a profile to produce results more to 
your taste.
More Help topics 
“Install a color profile” on page 92
Color-managing PDFs for printing
When you create Adobe PDFs for commercial printing, you can specify how color information is represented. The 
easiest way to do this is using a PDF/X standard; however, you can also specify color-handling options manually in the 
Output section of the PDF dialog box. For more information about PDF/X and how to create PDFs, search Help. 
						

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In general, you have the following choices for handling colors when creating PDFs:
(PDF/X-3) Does not convert colors. Use this method when creating a document that will be printed or displayed 
on various or unknown devices. When you select a PDF/X-3 standard, color profiles are automatically embedded 
in the PDF.
(PDF/X-1a) Converts all colors to the destination CMYK color space. Use this method if you want to create a press-
ready file that does not require any further color conversions. When you select a PDF/X-1a standard, no profiles 
are embedded in the PDF.
(Illustrator and InDesign) Converts colors that have embedded profiles to the destination color space, but preserves 
the numbers for those colors without embedded profiles. You can manually select this option in the Output section 
of the PDF dialog box. Use this method if the document contains CMYK images that aren’t color-managed and you 
want to make sure that the color numbers are preserved. 
Note: All spot color information is preserved during color conversion; only the process color equivalents convert to the 
designated color space.
More Help topics 
“Using a safe CMYK workflow” on page 83
Working with color profiles
About color profiles
Precise, consistent color management requires accurate ICC-compliant profiles of all of your color devices. For 
example, without an accurate scanner profile, a perfectly scanned image may appear incorrect in another program, 
simply due to any difference between the scanner and the program displaying the image. This misleading 
representation may cause you to make unnecessary, time-wasting, and potentially damaging “corrections” to an 
already satisfactory image. With an accurate profile, a program importing the image can correct for any device 
differences and display a scan’s actual colors.
A color management system uses the following kinds of profiles:
Monitor profiles Describe how the monitor is currently reproducing color. This is the first profile you should create 
because viewing color accurately on your monitor allows for critical color decisions in the design process. If what you 
see on your monitor is not representative of the actual colors in your document, you will not be able to maintain color 
consistency. 
Input device profiles Describe what colors an input device is capable of capturing or scanning. If your digital camera 
offers a choice of profiles, Adobe recommends that you select Adobe RGB. Otherwise, use sRGB (which is the default 
for most cameras). Advanced users may also consider using different profiles for different light sources. For scanner 
profiles, some photographers create separate profiles for each type or brand of film scanned on a scanner.
Output device profiles Describe the color space of output devices like desktop printers or a printing press. The color 
management system uses output device profiles to properly map the colors in a document to the colors within the 
gamut of an output device’s color space. The output profile should also take into consideration specific printing 
conditions, such as the type of paper and ink. For example, glossy paper is capable of displaying a different range of 
colors than matte paper.
Most printer drivers come with built-in color profiles. It’s a good idea to try these profiles before you invest in custom 
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Document profiles Define the specific RGB or CMYK color space of a document. By assigning, or tagging, a document 
with a profile, the application provides a definition of actual color appearances in the document. For example, R=127, 
G=12, B=107 is just a set of numbers that different devices will display differently. But when tagged with the Adobe 
RGB color space, these numbers specify an actual color or wavelength of light–in this case, a specific color of purple. 
When color management is on, Adobe applications automatically assign new documents a profile based on Working 
Space options in the Color Settings dialog box. Documents without assigned profiles are known as untagged and 
contain only raw color numbers. When working with untagged documents, Adobe applications use the current 
working space profile to display and edit colors.
Managing color with profilesA. Profiles describe the color spaces of the input device and the document.  B. Using the profiles’ descriptions, the color management system 
identifies the document’s actual colors.  C. The monitor’s profile tells the color management system how to translate the document’s numeric 
values to the monitor’s color space.  D. Using the output device’s profile, the color management system translates the document’s numeric values 
to the color values of the output device so the correct appearance of colors is printed.  
More Help topics 
“Calibrate and profile your monitor” on page 92
“Letting the printer determine colors when printing” on page 88
“Obtaining custom profiles for desktop printers” on page 89
“About color working spaces” on page 95
About monitor calibration and characterization
Profiling software can both calibrate and characterize your monitor. Calibrating your monitor brings it into 
compliance with a predefined standard—for example, adjusting your monitor so that it displays color using the 
graphics arts standard white point color temperature of 5000°
 K (Kelvin). Characterizing your monitor simply creates 
a profile that describes how the monitor is currently reproducing color. 
Monitor calibration involves adjusting the following video settings: 
Brightness and contrast The overall level and range, respectively, of display intensity. These parameters work just as 
they do on a television. A monitor calibration utility helps you set an optimum brightness and contrast range for 
calibration.
A 
B 
C 
D  
						

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Gamma The brightness of the midtone values. The values produced by a monitor from black to white are nonlinear—
if you graph the values, they form a curve, not a straight line. Gamma defines the value of that curve halfway between 
black and white.
Phosphors The substances that CRT monitors use to emit light. Different phosphors have different color 
characteristics.
White point The color and intensity of the brightest white the monitor can reproduce.
Calibrate and profile your monitor
When you calibrate your monitor, you are adjusting it so it conforms to a known specification. Once your monitor is 
calibrated, the profiling utility lets you save a color profile. The profile describes the color behavior of the monitor—
what colors can or cannot be displayed on the monitor and how the numeric color values in an image must be 
converted so that colors are displayed accurately. 
1Make sure your monitor has been turned on for at least a half hour. This gives it sufficient time to warm up and 
produce more consistent output.
2Make sure your monitor is displaying thousands of colors or more. Ideally, make sure it is displaying millions of 
colors or 24-bit or higher.
3Remove colorful background patterns on your monitor desktop and set your desktop to display neutral grays. Busy 
patterns or bright colors surrounding a document interfere with accurate color perception. 
4Do one of the following to calibrate and profile your monitor:
In Windows, install and use a monitor calibration utility.
In Mac OS, use the Calibrate utility, located on the System Preferences/Displays/Color tab.
For the best results, use third-party software and measuring devices. In general, using a measuring device such as a 
colorimeter along with software can create more accurate profiles because an instrument can measure the colors 
displayed on a monitor far more accurately than the human eye.
Note: Monitor performance changes and declines over time; recalibrate and profile your monitor every month or so. If 
you find it difficult or impossible to calibrate your monitor to a standard, it may be too old and faded.
Most profiling software automatically assigns the new profile as the default monitor profile. For instructions on how 
to manually assign the monitor profile, refer to the Help system for your operating system. 
Install a color profile
Color profiles are often installed when a device is added to your system. The accuracy of these profiles (often called 
generic profiles or canned profiles) varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. You can also obtain device profiles from 
your service provider, download profiles from the web, or create custom profiles using professional profiling 
equipment.
In Windows, right-click a profile and select Install Profile. Alternatively, copy the profiles into the 
WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color folder.
In Mac OS, copy profiles into the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder or the 
/Users/[username]/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.
After installing color profiles, be sure to restart Adobe applications. 
More Help topics 
“Obtaining custom profiles for desktop printers” on page 89 
						

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Embed a color profile
To embed a color profile in a document you created in Illustrator, InDesign, or Photoshop, you must save or export 
the document in a format that supports ICC profiles.
1Save or export the document in one of the following file formats: Adobe PDF, PSD (Photoshop), AI (Illustrator), 
INDD (InDesign), JPEG, Photoshop EPS, Large Document Format, or TIFF.
2Select the option for embedding ICC profiles. The exact name and location of this option varies between 
applications. Search Adobe Help for additional instructions.
Embed a color profile (Acrobat)
You can embed a color profile in an object or an entire PDF. Acrobat attaches the appropriate profile, as specified in 
the Convert Colors dialog box, to the selected color space in the PDF. For more information, see the color conversion 
topics in Acrobat Help.
Changing the color profile for a document
There are very few situations that require you to change the color profile for a document. This is because your 
application automatically assigns the color profile based on the settings you select in the Color Settings dialog box. The 
only times you should manually change a color profile are when preparing a document for a different output 
destination or correcting a policy behavior that you no longer want implemented in the document. Changing the 
profile is recommended for advanced users only.
You can change the color profile for a document in the following ways:
Assign a new profile. The color numbers in the document remain the same, but the new profile may dramatically 
change the appearance of the colors as displayed on your monitor.
Remove the profile so that the document is no longer color-managed.
(Acrobat, Photoshop and InDesign) Convert the colors in the document to the color space of a different profile. 
The color numbers are shifted in an effort to preserve the original color appearances.
Assign or remove a color profile (Illustrator, Photoshop)
1Choose Edit > Assign Profile. 
2Select an option, and click OK:
Don’t Color Manage This Document Removes the existing profile from the document. Select this option only if you are 
sure that you do not want to color-manage the document. After you remove the profile from a document, the 
appearance of colors is defined by the application’s working space profiles.
Working [color model: working space] Assigns the working space profile to the document. 
Profile Lets you select a different profile. The application assigns the new profile to the document without converting 
colors to the profile space. This may dramatically change the appearance of the colors as displayed on your monitor.
More Help topics 
“Changing the color profile for a document” on page 93
Assign or remove a color profile (InDesign)
1Choose Edit > Assign Profiles.  
						

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2For RGB Profile and CMYK Profile, select one of the following:
Discard (Use Current Working Space) Removes the existing profile from the document. Select this option only if you 
are sure that you do not want to color-manage the document. After you remove the profile from a document, the 
appearance of colors is defined by the application’s working space profiles, and you can no longer embed a profile in 
the document.
Assign Current Working Space [working space] Assigns the working space profile to the document. 
Assign Profile Lets you select a different profile. The application assigns the new profile to the document without 
converting colors to the profile space. This may dramatically change the appearance of the colors as displayed on your 
monitor.
3Choose a rendering intent for each type of graphic in your document. For each graphic type, you can choose one 
of the four standard intents, or the Use Color Settings Intent, which uses the rendering intent currently specified in 
the Color Settings dialog box. For more information on rendering intents, search in Help. 
The graphic types include the following:
Solid Color Intent Sets the rendering intent for all vector art (solid areas of color) in InDesign native objects.
Default Image Intent Sets the default rendering intent for bitmap images placed in InDesign. You can still override this 
setting on an image-by-image basis. 
After-Blending Intent Sets the rendering intent to the proofing or final color space for colors that result from 
transparency interactions on the page. Use this option when your document includes transparent objects.
4To preview the effects of the new profile assignment in the document, select Preview, and then click OK.
More Help topics 
“Changing the color profile for a document” on page 93
“View or change profiles for imported bitmap images (InDesign)” on page 84
Convert document colors to another profile (Photoshop)
1Choose Edit > Convert To Profile.
2Under Destination Space, choose the color profile to which you want to convert the document’s colors. The 
document will be converted to and tagged with this new profile.
3Under Conversion Options, specify a color management engine, a rendering intent, and black point and dither 
options (if available). (See 
“Color conversion options” on page 98.)
4To flatten all layers of the document onto a single layer upon conversion, select Flatten Image.
5To preview the effects of the conversion in the document, select Preview. 
More Help topics 
“Changing the color profile for a document” on page 93
Convert document colors to Multichannel, Device Link, or Abstract color 
profiles (Photoshop)
1Choose Edit > Convert To Profile. 
						

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2Click Advanced. The following additional ICC profile types are available under Destination Space:
Multichannel Profiles that support more than four color channels. These are useful when printing with more than four inks.
Device Link Profiles that transform from one device color space to another, without using an intermediate color space 
in the process. These are useful when specific mappings of device values (like 100% black) are required.
Abstract Profiles that enable custom image effects. Abstract profiles can have LAB/XYZ values for both input and 
output values, which enables generation of a custom LUT to achieve the desired special effect.
Note: Gray, RGB, LAB, and CMYK color profiles are grouped by category in Advanced view. They are combined on the 
Profile menu in Basic view.
3To preview the effects of the conversion in the document, select Preview. 
More Help topics 
“Changing the color profile for a document” on page 93
Convert document colors to another profile (Acrobat)
You convert colors in a PDF by using Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors. For more information, see the color 
conversion topics in Acrobat Help.
Color settings
Customize color settings
For most color-managed workflows, it is best to use a preset color setting that has been tested by Adobe Systems. 
Changing specific options is recommended only if you are knowledgeable about color management and very confident 
about the changes you make.
After you customize options, you can save them as a preset. Saving color settings ensures that you can reuse them and 
share them with other users or applications.
To save color settings as a preset, click Save in the Color Settings dialog box. To ensure that the application displays 
the setting name in the Color Settings dialog box, save the file in the default location. If you save the file to a different 
location, you must load the file before you can select the setting.
To load a color settings preset that’s not saved in the standard location, click Load in the Color Settings dialog box, 
select the file you want to load, and click Open.
Note: In Acrobat, you cannot save customized color settings. To share customized color settings with Acrobat, you must 
create the file in InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, and then save it in the default Settings folder. It will then be available 
in the Color Management category of the Preferences dialog box. You can also add settings manually to the default 
Settings folder.
About color working spaces
A working space is an intermediate color space used to define and edit color in Adobe applications. Each color model 
has a working space profile associated with it. You can choose working space profiles in the Color Settings dialog box.  
						

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A working space profile acts as the source profile for newly created documents that use the associated color model. For 
example, if Adobe RGB (1998) is the current RGB working space profile, each new RGB document that you create will 
use colors within the Adobe RGB (1998) gamut. Working spaces also determine the appearance of colors in untagged 
documents.
If you open a document embedded with a color profile that doesn’t match the working space profile, the application 
uses a color management policy to determine how to handle the color data. In most cases, the default policy is to 
preserve the embedded profile.
More Help topics 
“About missing and mismatched color profiles” on page 97
“Color management policy options” on page 97
Working space options
To display working space options in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, choose Edit > Color Settings. In Acrobat, 
select the Color Management category of the Preferences dialog box.
To view a description of any profile, select the profile and then position the pointer over the profile name. The 
description appears at the bottom of the dialog box.
RGB Determines the RGB color space of the application. In general, it’s best to choose Adobe RGB or sRGB, rather 
than the profile for a specific device (such as a monitor profile).
sRGB is recommended when you prepare images for the web, because it defines the color space of the standard 
monitor used to view images on the web. sRGB is also a good choice when you work with images from consumer-level 
digital cameras, because most of these cameras use sRGB as their default color space.
Adobe RGB is recommended when you prepare documents for print, because Adobe RGB’s gamut includes some 
printable colors (cyans and blues in particular) that can’t be defined using sRGB. Adobe RGB is also a good choice 
when working with images from professional-level digital cameras, because most of these cameras use Adobe RGB as 
their default color space. 
CMYK Determines the CMYK color space of the application. All CMYK working spaces are device-dependent, 
meaning that they are based on actual ink and paper combinations. The CMYK working spaces Adobe supplies are 
based on standard commercial print conditions.
Gray (Photoshop) or Grayscale (Acrobat) Determines the grayscale color space of the application. 
Spot (Photoshop) Specifies the dot gain to use when displaying spot color channels and duotones.
Note:  In Acrobat, you can use the color space in an embedded output intent instead of a document color space for viewing 
and printing. For more information on output intents, see Acrobat Help.
Adobe applications ship with a standard set of working space profiles that have been recommended and tested by 
Adobe Systems for most color management workflows. By default, only these profiles appear in the working space 
menus. To display additional color profiles that you have installed on your system, select Advanced Mode (Illustrator 
and InDesign) or More Options (Photoshop). A color profile must be bi-directional (that is, contain specifications for 
translating both into and out of color spaces) in order to appear in the working space menus. 
Note: In Photoshop, you can create custom working space profiles. However, Adobe recommends that you use a standard 
working space profile rather than create a custom profile. For more information, see the Photoshop support 
knowledgebase at www.adobe.com/support/products/photoshop.html.