Working With Color; About Color And Computer Graphics; Using Color Management - Adobe PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS Manual

Chapter 3: Working with Color
amiliarity with color theory and termi-
F
nology can help you understand how color
is measured and how Adobe Photoshop
Elements uses this information to define, display,
and print color values. You can apply colors and
make color and tonal adjustments using the color
information of an image.
About color and computer
graphics
Objects appear to be certain colors because of their
ability to reflect, absorb, or transmit light, which
we perceive as color. Our eyes are sensitive enough
to perceive thousands of different colors in the
spectrum of visible light—including many colors
that cannot be displayed on a color monitor or
printed on a desktop printer.
When creating computer graphics, each piece of
equipment you work with to reproduce color—
such as a scanner, color monitor, and desktop
printer—is called a device. Each type of device
reproduces a different range of color, called a color
gamut. Even similar devices, such as two monitors
made by the same manufacturer, can show the
same color differently. As you move an image from
one device to another, its colors can shift in
appearance, sometimes resulting in dramatic
changes.

Using color management

A color management system is used to achieve
color consistency between different devices.
Ideally, this means that the colors on your monitor
accurately represent both the colors in the scanned
image and the colors you will see when the
image is printed. Photoshop Elements follows a
color management workflow based on conven-
tions developed by the International Color
Consortium (ICC).
An ICC workflow uses color profiles to determine
how colors in a file translate to actual color
appearances. By associating, or tagging, an image
with a color profile, you provide a definition of
actual color appearances in the image; changing
the associated profile changes the color appear-
ances. Images without associated profiles are
known as untagged and contain only raw colors.
To create a color-managed image:
Open a file and choose Edit > Color Settings.
1
Select a color management option, and
2
click OK:
No color management to associate no color
•
profile with the image.
• Limited color management to tag the image with
a standard color profile for Web graphics.
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