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PDF Color Management Essentials

The document discusses color management in PDF, particularly focusing on the evolution of PDF versions and their corresponding color spaces. It outlines the differences between device-dependent and device-independent color spaces, and how various applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign handle color profiles when exporting PDFs. Additionally, it explains the role of Acrobat Distiller in processing PostScript files into PDFs and the importance of understanding color encoding for effective color management in digital workflows.

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Jonathan Gamez
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© All Rights Reserved
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views10 pages

PDF Color Management Essentials

The document discusses color management in PDF, particularly focusing on the evolution of PDF versions and their corresponding color spaces. It outlines the differences between device-dependent and device-independent color spaces, and how various applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign handle color profiles when exporting PDFs. Additionally, it explains the role of Acrobat Distiller in processing PostScript files into PDFs and the importance of understanding color encoding for effective color management in digital workflows.

Uploaded by

Jonathan Gamez
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Color Management and PDF

Color Spaces in PDF 1.5

• PDF 1.5 corresponds to Acrobat 6


Color Management
and PDF
• PDF 1.4 corresponds to Acrobat 5

• PDF1.3 was supported by Acrobat 4, 1.2 by 3.0, and back to 1.0 in


Acrobat 1.0

• PDF 1.3 introduced the ICCBased Color Space

• LAB color space supported limited color management in PDF 1.2

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction Summary of Acrobat Color Spaces


• PDF has established itself as a digital master format for many printing • Device Spaces
and publishing workflows
• DeviceRGB: Device dependent 8 bit RGB values
• More efficient than PostScript
• DeviceCMYK: Device dependent 8 bit CMYK values
• More repurposable from a color perspective
• DeviceGray: Device dependent 8 bit Grayscale values
• Assembling PDFs from a variety of sources requires some knowledge
• Device independent spaces
of PDF color management functionality
• CalRGB: a global device independent 8 bit RGB color space, essentially sRGB
• PDF created with Acrobat Distiller requires a knowledge of PostScript
• LAB: a global device independent 8 bit L*a*b* encoding
input color spaces as well
• ICCbased: a locally defined color space assigned an ICC profile
• Without third party plug-ins examining or altering the color encoding
• 1-channel (Gray)
in a PDF file can be tedious or destructive
• 3-channel (RGB)
• 4-channel (CMYK)

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.


© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Overview Acrobat 5-6 color preferences


• Color Spaces in PDF 1.4 • Preferences allow Color Management to be enabled, Working Space
• Acrobat 5-6 color managment for display and proof ICC Profiles to be selected, and CMM to be specified
• Exporting PDF from Publishing applications
• Distiller Color
• PostScript color spaces and color management
• Distiller Policies and PostScript color spaces
• Learning about color in PostScript and PDF with a text editor
• Better tools for checking PDF color
• Printing PDF color from Acrobat 5-6
• Conclusions

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

1
Color Management and PDF

Acrobat 5-6 Color Management for Display Sources of PDF


Device Dependent

Device dependant RGB in PDF • Export or Save from applications


(DeviceRGB)

• Different implementations make this a nonstandard source


Device dependant CMYK in PDF
ICC ICC
(DeviceCMYK)
CMYK RGB
Working Space Profile Working Space
Device Independent Connection • Via a PostScript print driver and Distiller
Display
Space
LAB color in PDF
(LAB ICC
(LAB) Definition) RGB
Working Space
• Thisis the best approach for generating desired color spaces
definitions in PDF from a variety of sources
ICC defined color in PDF ICC
(ICCBased) ICC RGB
Working Space
Assigned
ICC Profile

CalRGB color in PDF ICC


ICC RGB
(CalRGB) Working Space
sRGB
Profile
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Acrobat 5-6 Color Management for Proof Exporting PDF from Publishing applications
Device Dependent

Device dependant RGB in PDF


• Let’s examine how PDF is saved or exported from
(DeviceRGB)

• Photoshop 6-7
Device dependant CMYK in PDF
ICC ICC
(DeviceCMYK)
CMYK Proof Space ->
Working Space Profile RGB Working Space
Device Independent
Connection
• Freehand 10
Display
Space
LAB color in PDF
ICC
(LAB
(LAB) Definition) Proof Space ->
RGB Working Space
• Illustrator 9-10

ICC defined color in PDF ICC • InDesign 1.5-3.0


ICC Proof Space ->
(ICCBased) RGB Working Space
Assigned
ICC Profile

• XPress 4.1-6
ICC
CalRGB color in PDF
Proof Space ->
ICC RGB Working Space
(CalRGB)
sRGB
Profile
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Acrobat 5-6 Color Management for Print Adobe Photoshop


• Assuming we are printing to a PostScript device, we • Photoshop 6.0-7.0 allows PDF generation via Save As...
need to understand
• How PostScript colors are handled by the PostScript Interpreter

• How color is encoded in PostScript when printing from Acrobat

• Also, this will help us to understand how Distiller


processes .ps files

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

2
Color Management and PDF

PDF from Photoshop Adobe Illustrator


• If “Embed Color Profile” is not set, colors in the PDF will be • Illustrator 9-10 allows PDF generation via Save As
DeviceCMYK or DeviceRGB depending upon docuement color space
• Can create PDF 1.3 or 1.4
• If “Embed Color Profile” is set, colors in the PDF will be ICCBased • Provides an option to preserve AI editing capabilities
• Defined by the ICC profile the data is embedded with in Photoshop
• may or may not be the current RGB working space!

• If “Use Proof Setup” and “Embed Color Profile” is set, colors will be
ICC based
• Colors will first be converted to the current Proof space
• ICCbased definition will use the ICC profile (RGB or CMYK) from Proof Setup

• If “Use Proof Setup” is set without “Embed Color Profile”, colors will
be DeviceRGB or DeviceCMYK depending upon the profile selected
in Proof Setup

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Macromedia Freehand Illustrator PDF


• Freehand 10 supports the Export of PDF 1.3 • If “Embed Color Profile” is set, colors in the PDF will be ICCbased
• Options dialog specifies output as RGB, CMYK, or both • Defined by the ICC profile for Working RGB or CMYK in Illustrator, depending
on document color space
• may or may not be the current RGB working space!

• If “Embed ICC Profile” is not set, colors in the PDF will be


DeviceRGB or DeviceCMYK depending on document color space
• Converting colors via Proof Setup for the generation of a Device or
ICCBased PDF is not supported
• Colors will first be converted to the current Proof space
• ICCbased definition will use the ICC profile (RGB or CMYK) from Proof Setup

• If “Use Proof Setup” is set without “Embed Color Profile”, colors will
be DeviceRGB or DeviceCMYK depending upon the profile selected
in Proof Setup
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Macromedia PDF via Export Adobe InDesign


• If “Convert colors to” is set to “RGB and CMYK”, then a mix of
• InDesign
allows the specification of PDF Settings via
Device color spaces will be emitted
PDF Styles
• If “Convert colors to” is set to “RGB” or to “CMYK”, then only one
Device color space will result in the PDF, DeviceRGB or
DeviceCMYK respectively
• Freehand 10 supports ColorSync and may use profiles selected there for
colorimetric conversions of RGB and CMYK in this case
• Freehand 10 Exports PDF 1.2; the ICCBased PDF color space was not
introduced until PDF 1.3

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

3
Color Management and PDF

InDesign 1.5-3 PDF Export dialog Quark XPress

• The
Xtension “PDF Filter” adds “Export as PDF” to the
XPress Utilities menu

• PostScript is written to disk, then passed to Distiller

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

InDesign 1.5-3 PDF color with Include ICC on Quark XPress with PDF Filter
• Colors will be encoded as ICCBased • PostScript is written to disk, then passed to Distiller
• Document Color Management must be enabled
• Distiller and a Distiller PPD are required
• Export Style should have “Include ICC Profiles” set and Colors set to “Leave
Unchanged” • Distiller Job Options govern the creation of the PDF file
• Every page object may have a different ICC Profile assigned • If Color Management is enabled in XPress, colors are converted
colorimetrically converted from their source spaces to the Composite
• Placed Photoshop and TIFF images will maintain embedded tagging, or tagged
using the default profiles in Document Color Settings Printer space
• This can be altered via “Image Color Settings”, though not for placed PDF or EPS • PDF Filter Preferences can override some of Distiller’s Job Options
• Native InDesign page components will be assigned the profile for the Default • Not color settings, so Distiller must be set to tag Device color space with the
RGB or CMYK from InDesign Preferences depending upon the mode in which Composite printer profile selected in XPress
the page object is created
• If “Include ICC profiles” is not set but Document Color Management
is enabled, all colors will be colorimetrically converted to Composite
Printer space, then encoded as DeviceCMYK
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

InDesign 1.5-3 PDF color with Include ICC off Creating PDF with Distiller 5-6
• If
“Leave colors unchanged” is set a mix of DeviceRGB • Many applications do not have functionality for the
and DeviceCMYK encoding will result from a mixed Export of PDF
color document
• Setting Colors to “CMYK” in the PDF Style is a better • Some that do use Distiller anyway, such as XPress
choice
• all
colors are converted to composite CMYK (or Separation • Different implementations of PDF Export create PDF
simulation on Composite), then encoded as DeviceCMYK files with different color space encodings, so creating
• If
“Include ICC profiles” is not set but Document Color device-dependent PostScript for processing with Distiller
Management is enabled all colors will be converted to can be more reliable
Composite Printer space then encoded as DeviceCMYK

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

4
Color Management and PDF

Distiller Functionality PostScript Device Dependent Color Spaces


• Acrobat • DeviceCMYK
Distiller processes PostScript or EPS files and
• The most commonly used color space in PostScript
converts them to PDF
• DeviceCMYK values are “passed through” in the PostScript interpreter to the
CMYK marking engine
• EssentiallyDistiller is interpreting the PostScript • DeviceCMYK is the color space that allowed the quality assurance of
page(s), then encoding a PDF with the display list of the conventional CMYK scanning workflows
• The CMYK values the scanner operator measured are precisely reproduced on the
page objects output

• DeviceRGB
• Distiller
can provide compression, font embedding, and • The nemesis of graphic arts producers

color conversion or tagging when processing PostScript • DeviceRGB encoding in PostScript caused output errors in some prepress
workflows
• Even if the color printed, the conversion from to CMYK is hard coded since
• Distiller Job Options provides access to these features PostScript Level 1 so the appearance of image output can suffer greatly
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Distiller Color PostScript Device Independent Color Spaces


• Beforeexamining the functionality of Distiller’s Color Defined by Color Space Arrays (CSA’s)
• Think of these as “Input profiles” for now; more on that in a moment
Settings, we need to understand PostScript Color
• CIEBasedABC
• The first device independent PostScript color space
• Colors will be encoded in PostScript color spaces in the .ps file that
Distiller makes the PDF from • Application colors in LAB space or RGB space defined with a simple (display)
ICC Profile can be encoded in this space
• Prior to PostScript 2016 applications had to transform colors tagged with more
• Since
it is possible to print from Acrobat 5 using PostScript color complex ICC profiles to LAB to encode device independent PostScript
management, this will also help to explain how Acrobat creates
PostScript from PDF when printing to a PostScript Printer • CIEBasedDEF
• Used to encode colors tagged with complex RGB profiles, such as scanner and
camera profiles
• CIEBasedDEFG
• Four channel device independent PostScript color space that can encode CMYK
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
values tagged with CMYK Output profiles
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

PostScript Color Management How do PostScript input color spaces work?


• PostScript offers Device and Device Independent color encodings
• Much like ICC-based color management systems,
• PostScript level 1 offered only device spaces
PostScript Level 2 and PostScript 3 interpreters convert
• Level 2 introduced device independent color spaces and the device independent color spaces into the target output
mechanism for converting these colors to the color space of the
imaging engine when printing space for a marking engine via a Profile Connection
• Understanding how Distiller converts these spaces into PDF color Space
spaces gives the ability to create device independent PDF files
• Troubleshooting and validating Distiller based PDF workflows can be • Instead
of ICC Input Profiles, PostScript device
accomplished by examining the color space encoding in the PostScript independent input color spaces are defined with the
files from which the PDFs are created
Color Space Arrays (CSAs) just discussed

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

5
Color Management and PDF

How do PostScript output color spaces work? Distiller Job Options


• PostScript “Output Profiles” are known as Color Rendering
Dictionaries, or CRDs • Compatibility specifies what PDF version is written
• CRDs typically must be loaded on the PostScript interpreter by the
manufacturer • PDF 1.3-1.5 support ICCBased
• Unlike ICC output profiles, a PostScript CRD represents the PCS to
Device conversion for one Rendering intent only
• So four CRDs must be present for a the preferred halftone, resolutions,
and possibly ink and media choices
• There is usually no interface on the interpreter, so the selection of CRD
is difficult to manage
• Loading CRDs for new output conditions is a technical obstacle
• Ensuring that the right CRD is instantiated for the print is a challenge
• Some applications can download the CRD (InDesign)

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

PostScript color management mechanism Distiller Color Settings


• In most conventional PostScript workflows, CMYK values are • Color Management Policies are used to control the mapping of
required at the marking engine PostScript to PDF color spaces when Distilling

Device dependant PostScript RGB Level I


PostScript
(DeviceRGB) Conversion

Device dependant PostScript CMYK


DeviceCMYK
(DeviceCMYK)

CMYK
Device indepent PostScript Marking Engine
LAB or simple RGB PostScript
CIEBasedABC CRD
(CIEBasedABC) CSA Profile
Connection
Device indepent PostScript Space
LUT profile based RGB PostScript
CIEBasedDEF CRD
(CIEBasedDEF) CSA

Device indepent PostScript


CMYK PostScript
CIEBasedDEFG CRD
(CIEBasedDEFG) CSA

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.


© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Distiller and PostScript color spaces Distiller Color Policy for PDF 1.4-1.5
“Leave colors unchanged”
• Distiller may be configured to leave colors unchanged, preserving the
• Distiller will process PostScript (.ps) files and use the input color commonly used Device color spaces
spaces to determine the color encoding in the resultant PDF PostScript PDF
Device Dependent
• Device dependent PostScript color spaces may be left unchanged or
Device dependant PostScript RGB Device dependant PDF RGB
assigned a profile for definition or conversion (DeviceRGB) (DeviceRGB)

• Device independent PostScript color spaces may


Device dependant PostScript CMYK Device dependant PDF CMYK
• Retain their original encoding (LAB) (DeviceCMYK) (DeviceCMYK)

Device Independent
• Be converted using their CSA as an “input profile”
Device indepent PostScript sRGB Device indepent PDF
LAB or simple RGB ProfileICC RGB
• Have their CSA converted to an ICC profile with which the colors in the PDF are CIEBasedABC
or
(CIEBasedABC) LAB definition (CalRGB)
CSA Profile
tagged Connection sRGBICC
Profile
Device indepent PostScript Space Device indepent PDF
LUT profile based RGB or LAB definition LAB
(CIEBasedDEF) CIEBasedDEF (LAB)
CSA
LAB definition
Device indepent PostScript Device indepent PDF
CMYK RGB or CMYK
(CIEBasedDEFG) CIEBasedDEF (ICCBased)
CSA
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

6
Color Management and PDF
Distiller Color Policy
“Tag Everything for Color Management” Configuring Distiller to process .ps from XPress
• Distiller may also be configured to tag images only, for instance to • If
the XPress workflow uses a standard device dependent
preserve rich black in text or graphics
PostScript PDF CMYK, select the profile that represents that CMYK as
Device Dependent the CMYK Working Space
RGB Working Space Profile from
Device dependant PostScript RGB Distiller Job Options Device dependant PDF RGB
(DeviceRGB) ICC (DeviceRGB)
Distiller Color
Tagging
(no
• If
Color Management is being used in XPress, configure
conversion)
Device dependant PostScript CMYK
(DeviceCMYK)
ICC
Device dependant PDF CMYK
(DeviceCMYK)
the settings for printing to a composite printer
CMYK Working Space Profile from
Distiller Job Options
Device Independent

Device indepent PostScript


LAB or simple RGB
sRGB
ProfileICC
Device indepent PDF
RGB
• All
colors will be colorimetrically converted to the
CIEBasedABC or
(CIEBasedABC) CSA Profile
Connection sRGBICC
LAB definition (CalRGB)
Composite printer space when generating .ps
Profile
Device indepent PostScript Space Device indepent PDF
LUT profile based RGB or LAB definition LAB

• Select
the same composite printer profile chosen in
(CIEBasedDEF) CIEBasedDEF (LAB)
CSA
LAB definition ICC
ICC
Device indepent PostScript
CMYK
CIEBasedDEF
ICC
ICC Profiles
Device indepent PDF
RGB or CMYK XPress as the Distiller CMYK Working Space
(CIEBasedDEFG) CSA based on (ICCBased)
CIEBased CSAs
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

How to configure Distiller for your workflow Configuring Distiller to process .ps from Office
Applications
• For device dependent PostScript (most customers) it is a choice of • Microsoft
whether to create device dependent or device independent PDF
Office applications all encode colors as RGB,
writing DeviceRGB to the .ps file through the PostScript
• Device dependent will work for the original imaging device
print driver
• But device independent will work with that and other devices, based
upon the Advanced options in the Acrobat 5 print dialog
• The remedy is to Distill the .ps from Office applications
• In most cases for print a Device independent PDF with ICCBased
encoding makes sense and set the right RGB working space to have all colors
• For cross media on-line and print workflows, setting Distiller to “Tag
tagged as ICCBased
all as sRGB” may be a more reliable configuration, but color gamut
will be constrained by this choice • sRGB would seem the logical choice but the colors are
not in fact encoded in sRGB

• AppleRGB seems to give a reasonably close visual


© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
match for most colors © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

How to select Distiller working spaces Learning about color in PostScript with a text editor
• PostScript can be examined with a text editor
• Usethe CMYK profile that most closely matches the
CMYK used in production
• Searching for color spaces names can be helpful
• This may be a standard or custom press profile %ADBEndImagePosition
%%BeginIncludedImage
%%IncludedImageDimensions: 612 612
• If there is RGB in the workflow that has been written to %%IncludedImageType: 3 8 DeviceRGB
%%IncludedImageQuality: 2.0
.ps as DeviceRGB (not likely), assign the proper scanner
or RGB Working Space profile for the workflow
...How well will this .ps file work in a CMYK prepress workflow?

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

7
Color Management and PDF

Learning about color in PDF with a text editor Enfocus EyeDropper

• PDF • EyeDropper adds a sampling tool to the Acrobat tools palette


can be examined also
• Using this sampler displays the color values and color space encoding
for most page objects
• For instance we could search for “ICCBased” • Since the plug-in vendors are always catching up to Acrobat versions. some
25 0 obj
special procedures are required to examine color page object from certain
[ sources
• We find this: /ICCBased 34 0 R
]
endobj

• But we may still need to dig deeper and examine the


object tagged with this definition:
34 0 obj
<< /N 4 /Alternate /DeviceCMYK /Length 389758 /Filter /FlateDecode >>
stream
HâîîuT‘K « tKàîàKJI,çÇt(›ã ª4Ï K«“›%“π¥Hó4J#Ç“í Ç(H wπ˜˛qœyÔyflÛ~œ3Á˘ÃôgŒ<3ÛÃ Ñ Y 9El @∏

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Who wants to troubleshoot


.ps or PDF with a text editor? Enfocus PitStop Professional
• Pitstop allows the examination of PDFs for color encodings
• A: About as many people as have Device independent • Profiles may be reassigned or colors converted
PostScript workflows... • Color and other aspects of PDF preflighting may be automated using
PDF Profiles an Enfocus Certify workflow

• Better approaches • Action lists automate color and other processing

• Lantana ImageWorks

• Enfocus EyeDropper

• Enfocus PitStop Professional

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.


© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Lantana ImageWorks PitStop Professional operation


• ImageWorks allows preflighting of a PDF similar to InProduction • PitStopis an essential tool in a color managed PDF
• ImageWorks can identify ICCBased objects, but cannot display workflow
profiles or change them
• Since plug-in developers are always working to keep up
with versions of Acrobat and PDF, there are some
anomalies in the way PitStop identifies tagged images
and graphics
• The primary problem it seems is that PitStop does not
report color information for placed images that have OPI
links
• Solution is to remove the OPI links to inspect these objects
• PitStop allows OPI tags to be respecified later in these cases
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

8
Color Management and PDF

How Color Management works in Acrobat 6 printing Acrobat 6 printing options - Output profile selected
• When printing from Acrobat 5, three general color options are • Device colors are converted to the output profile using the working
available space profiles from preferences as input profiles
• All are accessed via the Advanced options in Acrobat 5 print dialog • CalRGB and LAB colors are converted to the output profile
• ICCBased colors are converted to the output profile using their
assigned ICC profiles as source profiles

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Acrobat 6 printing options - Same as Source Options for Acrobat Printing


• Turns color management off for printing • Print ICC Colors as Device Colors
• Device color spaces are sent as Device • Strips ICC tags from ICCBased colors and sends as device values

• CalRGB and LAB colors are converted to the Working space profile • Apply Working Spaces
from preferences, then sent as Device values • Used for PDF files with Device values that have not been tagged as ICCBased
• ICCBased color spaces are sent using their alternate definition, • DeviceRGB and CMYK treated as ICC based with Working Space profiles from
DeviceCMYK, DeviceRGB, or DeviceGray Preferences as their assign profile
• Specify a Profile for ICC CM

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.


© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Acrobat 6 printing options - PostScript Color Acrobat 5-6 Color Managed Printing
Management
Device Dependent
• Device spaces are encoded as CIEBased, with CSAs created from the
Device dependant RGB in PDF
Working Space Profiles from Preferences (DeviceRGB) ICC
RGB ICC
• CalRGB and LAB colors are sent as CIEBased with CSAs for LAB Working Space
Profile selected
in Print dialog
and CalRGB (sRGB) Device dependant CMYK in PDF
ICC ICC
• ICCBased colors are sent as CIEBased, with CSAs created from the (DeviceCMYK)
CMYK
Profile Profile selected
Working Space in Print dialog DeviceCMYK
ICC profiles with which the ICCBased objects are tagged Device Independent
Connection
or
DeviceRGB
Space Composite Printer
LAB color in PDF ICC
(LAB
(LAB) Definition) Profile selected
in Print dialog

ICC defined color in PDF ICC


ICC Profile selected
(ICCBased) in Print dialog
Assigned
ICC Profile

ICC
CalRGB color in PDF Profile selected
ICC in Print dialog
(CalRGB)
sRGB
Profile
© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

9
Color Management and PDF

Conclusions - 1

• PDFis clearly the best choice for a repurposable digital


master
• PostScript

• PostScript
color management is to hard to control
files can only be output on PostScript devices, which
Thank you!
many small office and home users do not have
• UsingICCBased encoding for the page objects in the
PDF file results in the most consistent appearance of the
document, both on calibrated displays and when printed

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved. © 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

Conclusions - 2
• Forprepress workflows where ICCBased colors need
sent without conversion when reprinting to the original
output device it may be advisable to convert all colors to
the same ICCBased definition
• Then use “Same as Source” when imaging to the original device
• PDF Export has many implementations
• UsingDistiller with PostScript files is often a more reliable
approach
• Checking and correcting color encodings in PDF
requires a third party tool
• Enfocus PitStop is the most appropriate choice for PDF workflows
leveraging ICCBased color definitions

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

References

• Enfocus:
[Link]

• Lantana:
[Link]

• Lou Prestia

© 2001, Prestia Color Consulting. All Rights Reserved.

10

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