Adobe 22001438 - Acrobat - PC Using Manual page 234

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Do you need color management?
You might not even need color management if your production process is tightly
controlled for one medium only. (For example, you or your prepress service provider may
prefer to tailor CMYK images and specify color values for a known set of printing condi-
tions.) Whenever you have more variables in your production process though, you can
probably benefit from color management.
Color management is recommended if you anticipate reusing color graphics for print and
online media, using various kinds of devices within a single medium (such as different
printing presses), if you manage multiple workstations, or if you plan to print to different
domestic and international presses. If you decide to use color management, consult with
your production partners—such as graphic artists and prepress service providers—to
ensure that all aspects of your color management workflow integrate seamlessly with
theirs.
About working spaces
Among other options, predefined color management settings specify the color profiles to
be associated with the RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale color modes.The settings also specify
the color profile for spot colors in a document. Central to the color management workflow,
these profiles are known as working spaces. The working spaces specified by predefined
settings represent the color profiles that will produce the best color fidelity for several
common output conditions. For example, the U.S. Prepress Defaults setting uses a CMYK
working space that is designed to preserve color consistency under standard Specifica-
tions for Web Offset Publications (SWOP) press conditions.
Managing color in Acrobat
Colors must often be converted when they are displayed to a monitor or sent to a printer.
This will always be the case when the color models do not match (for example, when
CMYK color is displayed on an RGB monitor).The techniques used for these conversions
are based on the use of ICC profiles. For managed colors, this conversion is well under-
stood because managed colors are described using ICC profiles. For unmanaged colors,
however, the process is less obvious. Because unmanaged colors do not use ICC profiles,
one must be temporarily assumed for the purpose of conversion.The choice of profiles to
use for these conversions of unmanaged colors is controlled by the Acrobat Color Prefer-
ences dialog box. Users may either use the profiles specified using a predefined color
settings file, or select specific profiles based on local press conditions.
In Acrobat 5.0, the soft proofing feature allows you to use your monitor to accurately see
how colors in a PDF document will look when rendered on a particular output device. (See
"Soft-proofing colors" on page
At print time, using the Acrobat Advanced Print Settings dialog box, Acrobat 5.0 also
allows the user to determine if color is managed on the host or on the printer. Host-based
color management gives better control over the output color space and more predictable
ICC workflows. (See "Managing color on a printer" on page
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