Designers Guide to Mac OS X Tiger

Mac OS X includes a systemwide color-management feature called ColorSync. ColorSync manages each device's color profile, whether it's a scanner, digital camera, display, or printer. It is so tightly interwoven with Tiger that every application can take advantage of color management, even if it isn't design related like Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress.

ColorSync profiles, also known as ICC profiles, describe how specific devices render colors. Tiger includes profiles for Apple displays, as well as the displays in the iBook, PowerBook, and MacBook Pro.

When you install the drivers and software for new color-related devices, any included ColorSync profiles should automatically install, too. Once installed, the profiles are available in every application on your Mac.

Selecting a Display Profile

ColorSync doesn't know how to display colors on your monitor until you tell it what display profile to use. Here's what you need to do:

1.

Launch System Preferences (choose Apple menu > System Preferences).

2.

Click the Displays icon. If you have more than one display, the Displays preference pane shows a separate pane on each display. The name of the display appears at the top of the pane. I have an Apple Studio Display connected to my PowerBook, so that's what I see at the top of the pane.

3.

In the Displays preference pane, click the Color tab (Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2. You select an ICC display profile for your Mac in the Displays preference pane in the Color pane.

4.

In the Color pane, choose your display from the Display Profile list.

Tip

The Displays preference pane opens a window on each monitor connected to your Mac so that you can select the appropriate display profile for each monitor.

Selecting Color Profiles in Adobe Applications

The Adobe Creative Suite applications include their own color-management interface (Figure 5.3). Here's how to enable ColorSync color management in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator:

Figure 5.3. Use the Color Settings dialog in the Adobe Creative Suite applications to apply your color workflow to your documents.

1.

Choose Edit > Color Settings.

2.

In the Color Settings dialog, check the Enable Color Management box.

3.

Choose ColorSync Workflow from the Settings pop-up menu.

4.

Choose your display profile from the RGB pop-up menu.

5.

Choose the color profile for the final output device from the CMYK pop-up menu.

6.

Leave the rest of the settings alone, and click OK.

Enabling color management in Adobe Photoshop works the same, but the settings are under Photoshop > Color Settings.

Selecting Color Profiles in QuarkXPress 7

Adding QuarkXPress to your color-managed workflow only takes a few steps, too. Here's what you need to do:

1.

Choose QuarkXPress > Preferences.

2.

Select Color Manager from the list on the left (Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4. To activate color management for your QuarkXPress 7 documents, go to the Color Manager settings in the QuarkXPress Preferences dialog.

3.

Choose ColorSync from the Color Engine pop-up menu.

4.

Click OK.

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