Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 253

When display color management is off, the RGB color values are sent directly to your monitor, without any
conversion through the monitor profile. RGB numbers are preserved; color appearance is not preserved.
When display color management is on for a viewer, a yellow plus sign appears in the Show Channel
bottom of the viewer.
For each viewer (Composition, Layer, or Footage panel), you can choose whether to manage display colors, which
involves the conversion of colors from the working color space to the monitor's color space.
Activate a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel.
1
2 Do one of the following to toggle between enabling and disabling display color management:
• Choose View > Use Display Color Management.
• Press Shift+/ (on the numeric keypad).
Output simulation settings (including No Output Simulation) are remembered.
See also
"Work with viewers" on page 19
"Previewing" on page 124
Simulate how colors will appear on a different output device
Often, you need to preview how a movie will appear on a device other than your computer monitor. One purpose of
color management is to ensure that colors look the same on every device, but color management in After Effects can't
overcome scenarios like the following:
• An output device for which you're creating your movie has a smaller gamut than your project's working color
space, so the device is unable to represent some colors.
• The colors in your movie are displayed by a device or software that does not use color management to convert
colors.
For example, when you are creating a movie on Windows, you may want to see how the movie will look on Mac OS
without color management. (Colors tend to look lighter on computer systems running Mac OS.) An even more
extreme example: When you are creating a movie using a computer monitor and a high-definition video monitor,
you may need to see how the movie will look when transferred to a specific film stock and projected under standard
theater viewing conditions.
In situations like these, you'll want to preview how colors will appear when they're displayed on a device other than
your computer monitor. Output simulation requires display color management.
During output simulation, colors are converted from the project's working color space to the monitor's color space
through the following flow:
1. Colors are converted from project's working color space to output color space.
working color space to the color space of the output type using the output color profile (the same profile that will be
used for rendering to final output).
2. Colors are converted from output color space to simulated playback device's color space.
selected, colors are converted from the output color space to the color space of the presentation medium using the
simulation profile. This presumes that the simulated device also performs color management and will convert colors
for display. Color appearance is preserved; RGB numbers are not preserved.
AFTER EFFECTS CS3
button at the
Colors are converted from the
If Preserve RGB is not
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User Guide