Photoshop and Color Management - Color Management for Photographers - page 92

the monitor isn't properly calibrated and profiled, there is no way in
which the preview of images will be correct. Consequently, if the output
profile for the device isn't accurate, there is no way the preview will be
a correct indication of the print. A custom-generated profile is often key
since a canned profile may or may not correctly describe the behavior of
the output device. When the output profile isn't an accurate indicator of
the print process, the soft proof might look fine. Yet when the print is
viewed and compared to the soft proof, the two will not match. Keep in
mind that a print is reflective and must be viewed under proper lighting
conditions such as a D50 light box, preferably with a dimmer. The
viewing conditions of both the print and the display are critical. Nonethe-
less, when set up properly, Photoshop can provide a very accurate on-
screen indication of how the output should appear!
Let us examine the options found in the Proof Setup menu. Under the
View menu there is an option called Proof Setup with a number of hierar-
chal submenus. The first option is Custom , which allows us to configure
the Proof Setup dialog (called Customize Proof Condition in CS2) as we wish.
Like the Color Settings discussed earlier, we can save and reload these user-
configured options. The Proof Setup submenu is one area where saved
proof setups can be accessed as seen in Fig. 2-19. Notice that I have
several saved settings toward the bottom of this submenu.
Before discussing the Customize Proof Condition , let's examine the
rest of this Proof Setup menu. Below the Custom menu there are a number
of submenus beginning with the heading, Working CMYK . If that is
selected, a soft proof of the preferred CMYK profile loaded in the
Color Settings will be used to preview the image. For example, if the
current Color Settings are configured for U.S. Prepress Defaults , the U.S. Web
Coated (SWOP) v2 ICC profile would be used to soft-proof the image.
Below this are several options that allow the user to see a soft proof
of the individual CMYK color channels based on this CMYK profile.
Selecting Working Magenta Plate would soft-proof just that magenta
channel. We can soft-proof the individual CMYK color channels of an
RGB file before it is converted into that color space. Because selecting
Working CMYK , use the current profile being accessed in the Color Settings ,
it might be necessary pick a different CMYK profile before using this
feature. This is the only way to soft-proof individual color channels of an
RGB file.
Moving further down, there are three options for soft-proofing images
as they may appear outside ICC aware applications. Macintosh RGB ,
Windows RGB , and Monitor RGB are each different ways to soft-proof a
document without using Photoshop's color management display archi-
tecture. You can soft-proof how a document would appear in an appli-
cation that doesn't know how to recognize the embedded profiles in a
current document. Opening a document in Adobe RGB (1998) outside
of an ICC-aware application usually results in a color appearance that is
somewhat flat and unsaturated. Using the Macintosh RGB soft proof would