Photoshop and Color Management - Color Management for Photographers - page 85

used in Photoshop. This option is used for reducing edge artifacts that
can show up when converting colors. This option originally was found
in Photoshop 2.5, but without any control over the setting. Higher values
set in Photoshop will result in less smoothing around edges. This option
is also available in the Convert to Profile dialog discussed later. As with the
Desaturate Monitor Colors by: option, my advice is to keep these options off.
Section 6: Descriptions
This is last and easiest portion of the Color Settings dialog to explain. This
is a location where instructions and online help are available via a
description field. When you create a custom color setting as discussed in
Section 1, you can write a description of what settings are based on. This
is useful to assist other users who may be sharing these settings. In addi-
tion, if you move your cursor over the various controls and options in
the Color Settings dialog, the description area will provide some rudi-
mentary online help.
The Press this button and move on Setting I'm often asked what color set-
tings I recommend. For those who want to select a color setting and move
on, I recommend the U.S. Prepress Defaults (in CS2, North America Prepress
2 ). This will set everything to very reasonable defaults: Adobe RGB
(1998) as the preferred RGB working space, all the policies to preserve
embedded profiles, and all the warning check boxes applied. You'll notice
that the preferred CMYK working space is U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.
In the United States, that happens to be a best guess setting for CMYK
working space unless you know the correct CMYK printing condition.
Then you could select that profile. If you happen to be outside the United
States, you'll see that Adobe has supplied other Prepress defaults for
Europe and Japan. The only difference among the group is the preferred
CMYK profile. You can pick any settings you wish or create your own
custom settings. The Prepress defaults are a good starting point for pho-
tographers, printers, and designers because you've selected safe policies
and warnings.
At this point, it would be an excellent idea to try out the Tutorial #5,
“Color Policy,” found in Chapter 9. After getting comfortable with how
documents are handled with and without warnings and with various
policies, you'll be in much better shape to decide if you want to alter the
defaults I've suggested.
Other Color Management Commands and Options
Time to move out of the Photoshop Color Settings and onto other color
management commands and options. In the Image-Mode menu are two
submenus that need to be discussed, the Assign Profile and Convert to Profile
commands. Note that these two menu items were moved in Photoshop