How To Change Color Profile In Photoshop

Essential Photoshop Colour Settings

Open your images to a greatly expanded globe of color with one simple but important alter to the Color Settings in Photoshop. Learn about color spaces, working spaces, the default sRGB color space, and why Adobe RGB is a better pick.

Adobe Photoshop is the world's nigh powerful and popular image editor. Every bit photographers, we trust Photoshop to help our photos look their very best. And then information technology may surprise you to learn that Photoshop's default color settings are preventing your photos from looking the style they should. The color settings in Photoshop determine the range of colors available to usa when we edit our images. More colors mean more potential item in our photos. More colors also give us admission to richer, more than vibrant and more saturated colors. And improve looking colors hateful amend looking images, both on screen and in impress.

Yet Photoshop'south default color settings won't requite y'all more colors. In fact, the default settings give you fewer colors. In this tutorial, we'll look at why Adobe thinks that fewer colors are better. We'll acquire where to find Photoshop'due south colour settings then we can change them. And we'll wait at the 1 of import setting we need to change to aggrandize our range of colors and assistance our images look even better. I'll be using Photoshop CC but the color settings in Photoshop are the same at present as they've been for years. Then if you're using Photoshop CS6 or earlier, you can easily follow along.

This is lesson 5 of eight in Chapter ane - Getting Started with Photoshop.

Let'southward become started!

Where To Find Photoshop's Color Settings

In Photoshop, the colour settings are institute under the Edit carte. Go upwards to the Edit menu in the Menu Bar along the summit of the screen. Then, choose Colour Settings:

To open up the colour settings, go to Edit > Color Settings.

The Colour Settings Dialog Box

The Color Settings dialog box will open up. If y'all've never seen the the Colour Settings dialog box before, it can look intimidating at first. But equally nosotros'll run across, most of Photoshop'southward default color settings are fine. In fact, in that location'due south really only i setting we need to change:

Photoshop'south Color Settings dialog box.

The New Darker Dialog Box

The Color Settings dialog box may look different on your screen depending on which version of Photoshop you're using. Adobe made dialog boxes darker in the most recent versions of Photoshop CC. Photoshop CS6 and before uses lighter dialog boxes. The item shade of gray you're seeing makes no difference. The color settings are the same.

Also, in Photoshop CS6 and earlier, some of the more advanced colour settings are subconscious by default. Y'all can access them by clicking the More Options button. However, we don't need to modify any of the advanced options, so you lot can safely leave them subconscious.

The Default Color Settings Preset

By default, Photoshop uses a preset collection of color settings known as North America Full general Purpose two. If you're in a different role of the world, your preset may exist named something dissimilar. If it is, that'south okay because we'll be making our own change anyhow:

The default "North America General Purpose two" preset.

Photoshop's Working Spaces

If we look direct below the proper noun of the preset, nosotros find the Working Spaces section. A working space tells Photoshop which color space to apply for different situations. For example, Photoshop uses one color space for displaying images on screen. Merely information technology uses a unlike color infinite for print. A color space determines the range of colors that are available. Some color spaces offer a wider range of colors than others. The particular range of colors that a color space offers is known as its color gamut.

There are four options (4 different situations) listed nether Working Spaces. These options are RGB, CMYK, Gray and Spot. Of the four, the only one we're interested in is the first i, RGB. That'due south because RGB is the one Photoshop uses for displaying our images on screen. The other three options (CMYK, Grayness and Spot) have to practise with commercial press. For our purposes here, and unless you're working with a commercial printer, you tin can leave all three options gear up to their defaults.

The RGB Working Space

Let's await at the RGB working space. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. It's the working space Photoshop uses for displaying and editing images. Red, green and blue are the three primary colors of lite. Your computer monitor, smart phone, television receiver and every other type of screen is an RGB device. RGB devices mix unlike amounts of red, dark-green and blue light to display every color we run across on the screen.

Photoshop also uses RGB. It uses color channels to mix different amounts of red, green and bluish to display all the colors we come across in our images. The exact range of colors that Photoshop volition reproduce is determined by the colour space nosotros've called every bit our RGB working space. By default, Photoshop sets the RGB working infinite to sRGB:

Photoshop's default working space for RGB is sRGB.

The sRGB Color Space

The sRGB color space was created back in 1996 past Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. Information technology was designed as a standard based on the range of colors available on a typical low-end computer monitor. Even today, most monitors can merely display the sRGB range of colors. Because of that, sRGB is the default color space for the web. Digital cameras typically have their default color space gear up to sRGB. In fact, many photographers are unaware that there'south a Color Infinite option buried in their photographic camera's bill of fare. Your dwelling house inkjet printer is set up to receive sRGB images by default. And fifty-fifty commercial printing labs will usually expect yous to save your images in the sRGB colour space.

For all of these reasons, Adobe decided it was best to set Photoshop's default RGB working space to sRGB. Afterward all, sRGB is the safe choice. But the safe choice isn't ever the best selection. When it comes to prototype editing in Photoshop, "rubber" and "best" are definitely not the same. The reason is that, of all the RGB color spaces we can cull from, sRGB contains the smallest range of colors.

The Human Middle vs sRGB

To help illustrate the problem, permit's await at a graph. This graph shows the color range available to us when working in the sRGB color space. The outer, curved area represents all the colors the human heart can run across. It's not a truthful representation because it doesn't show brightness values. Just it'due south still plenty to give the states a general sense of what's going on. Inside the larger shape is a small triangle. The area inside the triangle represents the sRGB colour range. None of the colors outside the triangle are bachelor in sRGB. This ways that many of the richer, more saturated and more vibrant colors, peculiarly in the greens and cyans, are unavailable in the sRGB color space:

A graph showing the colors nosotros can see (outer shape ) and what sRGB can display (inner triangle).

The Adobe RGB Color Space

While sRGB is by far the about widely-used RGB color infinite, it's not the only i. And, considering it offers the smallest range of colors, it's too not the best one. A improve pick is Adobe RGB (1998). Created in 1998 past Adobe (which explains the name), Adobe RGB offers a wider range of colors than sRGB. It's original purpose was to aid our photos await better when printed. Even though printers can print far fewer colors than the number of colors available in sRGB, they can reproduce more of the deeper, saturated colors our eyes are capable of seeing. Many higher-end inkjet printers have the option to switch from sRGB to the Adobe RGB color space so our prints can benefit from the extended colour range.

Digital cameras are likewise capable of capturing far more colors than what's bachelor in sRGB. So many cameras these days, especially high-cease DSLRs, have the pick to change their default color space from sRGB to Adobe RGB. If y'all shoot JPEGs, Adobe RGB will let your photos to preserve more of the scene's original colors. If your camera supports the raw format, and you capture your images as raw files, the Colour Space setting in your photographic camera makes no divergence. Raw files always capture every colour the camera sees. Notwithstanding, Adobe Lightroom and Photographic camera Raw, the tools we use to process raw images, both use Adobe RGB every bit their default RGB working space.

The Homo Eye vs Adobe RGB

Let's look at another graph, this time showing the range of colors available in Adobe RGB. Once again, the outer shape represents all the colors we can run across. The triangle inside the shape represents the range of colors Adobe RGB can reproduce. Notice how much larger the triangle is this time. While sRGB encompasses most a third of the visible colour range, Adobe RGB contains roughly half of all colors our eyes can meet. Near of the departure is in the greens and cyans, as the triangle extends much further into those areas than information technology did with sRGB. Where the sRGB color infinite is limited to more than muted tones, Adobe RGB can produce richer, more than vibrant colors:

A like graph showing the extended colour range of Adobe RGB.

Should You lot Switch From sRGB To Adobe RGB?

Many digital cameras can capture images in Adobe RGB. Many inkjet printers can reproduce colors that are merely available in Adobe RGB. There are even high-terminate computer monitors these days that tin can brandish most all of the Adobe RGB colour range. So, should you switch Photoshop'south RGB working space from sRGB to Adobe RGB? In most cases, the answer is yes. Adobe RGB offers a much wider range of colors than sRGB. So if your camera tin can capture them and your printer can impress them, why limit Photoshop to the smaller, more muted sRGB color space?

Reasons For Choosing sRGB

At that place are a few reasons why you may want to choose sRGB instead. Every bit we learned earlier, sRGB is the safe pick. Computer monitors, cameras and inkjet printers are all set to sRGB by default. Likewise, sRGB is the color space for images and graphics on the web. If y'all primarily display your photos online, you may want to stick with sRGB. If you're a web designer, again sRGB may be a better choice. And, if you're brand new to Photoshop and all this talk almost colour spaces is too disruptive, at that place's no harm in leaving Photoshop set to sRGB. While sRGB may lack the more than vibrant and saturated colors of Adobe RGB, it even so contains a wide enough color range to produce stunning and amazing looking images.

Reasons For Choosing Adobe RGB

Still, if yous're a photographer and you want your photos to await their absolute best, specially when printed, Adobe RGB is the better choice. If you shoot in the raw format, both Camera Raw and Lightroom utilize Adobe RGB as their default color space. It makes sense, then, to set Photoshop to Adobe RGB likewise. Fifty-fifty if you brandish your images on the web, there's no reason not to edit them in Adobe RGB. They'll benefit from the expanded Adobe RGB color range during the editing process. And, when yous save them subsequently using the Relieve for Web dialog box, Photoshop volition automatically convert your images to sRGB. In other words, if y'all just desire to play information technology safe, choose sRGB. In pretty much every other example, Adobe RGB is the better choice.

Setting Photoshop To Adobe RGB

To start taking reward of the expanded color range of Adobe RGB, all we need to do is modify Photoshop's RGB working infinite. Click on "sRGB IEC61966-2.one":

Clicking on the default sRGB color space.

Then choose Adobe RGB (1998) from the list:

Choosing the Adobe RGB colour space.

With that one simple change, Photoshop will now employ Adobe RGB for displaying and editing your images. For best results, bank check your digital photographic camera and inkjet printer to see if they support the Adobe RGB color space. If they practise, you lot'll want to gear up them both to Adobe RGB:

The RGB working infinite has been changed to Adobe RGB.

The Color Management Policies

Now that nosotros've set Photoshop'due south RGB working infinite to Adobe RGB, there's one set of options we should rapidly look at. Those are the Color Direction Policies. Fifty-fifty though we've set Photoshop to Adobe RGB, yous may still find yourself opening images that were saved in sRGB. It sounds similar something to worry almost, but it'due south non. Photoshop is more than capable of handling images that use a color space other than our working space. By default, Photoshop will simply preserve the photo's original color profile. This is exactly what you want. The colors in the prototype will even so await correct, and y'all can edit the image as you lot usually would without any problems.

We tell Photoshop how to handle these color profile mismatches in the Color Direction Policies department. The RGB, CMYK and Gray working spaces each have their own carve up setting. Again, the only one we're actually interested in is the first one, RGB. Nevertheless, it doesn't injure to make sure that all three working spaces are set to Preserve Embedded Profiles, which they should exist by default:

The Color Direction Policies section.

The Contour Mismatches And Missing Profiles Checkboxes

Below the RGB, CMYK and Gray options are three checkboxes. The first two are for Profile Mismatches, where the epitome you lot're opening uses a color profile that'south unlike from your working space. The third 1 is for Missing Profiles where the image has no color profile at all. Images downloaded from the web often exercise not have a color profile associated with them. If you select (check) these options, and so every time you get to open an image with a different color profile, or no profile at all, Photoshop volition enquire how you want to handle it. To avert the question and simply let Photoshop open the images as information technology normally would, get out these options unchecked:

The Profile Mismatches and Missing Profiles options.

Relieve Your New Color Settings

Once you lot've switched from sRGB to Adobe RGB, information technology's a proficient idea to salvage your new color settings. This style, yous can easily switch back to them again if needed. To save your colour settings, click the Salve push button:

Clicking the Salve button.

Enter a name for your colour settings. I'll name mine "My Color Settings". Then, click the Save button again:

Naming the new color settings.

The Colour Settings Annotate dialog box will open up. Here, you can enter a description for your settings to serve as a reminder of what these settings are for. I'll enter "These are the best settings to apply with my images". Click OK when yous're done to shut out of the dialog box:

Calculation a description for the new color settings.

Your custom Photoshop color settings are now saved. You lot can choose them again at any time from the Settings option at the top of the Color Settings dialog box:

Selecting my new custom settings from the listing of presets.

Where to go side by side...

And in that location nosotros take it! That'south how, and why, to switch your RGB working space in Photoshop from sRGB to Adobe RGB! If Photoshop is the only programme y'all utilise in the Creative Cloud (or Creative Suite), this is all you lot demand to do. But if you use other Adobe apps as well, like Illustrator or InDesign, you'll want to make certain they're all using the aforementioned color settings. In the next lesson in this chapter, we'll learn how to sync Photoshop'southward color settings with all of your Artistic Cloud or Creative Suite apps!

Or check out any of the other lessons in this chapter:

• 01. How to continue Photoshop CC upwards to engagement
• 02. How to install Adobe Bridge CC
• 03. How to download photos from your photographic camera with Adobe Bridge
• 04. How to manage and organize your images with Adobe Bridge
• 05. Essential Photoshop Color Settings
• 06. Sync Photoshop's Color Settings with all Creative Cloud apps
• 07. Essential Photoshop Preferences for beginners
• 08. How to reset Photoshop Preferences

For more than chapters and for our latest tutorials, visit our Photoshop Basics department!

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How To Change Color Profile In Photoshop,

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