Adobe Acrobat XI - Manual (Page 585)

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Color management
Last updated 1/14/2015
Basic steps for producing consistent color
Consult with your production partners (if you have any) to ensure that all aspects of your color management
workflow integrate seamlessly with theirs.
Discuss how the color workflow will be integrated with your workgroups and service providers, how software and
hardware will be configured for integration into the color management system, and at what level color management
will be implemented. (See
Do you need color management? .)
Calibrate and profile your monitor.
A monitor profile is the first profile you should create. Seeing accurate color is essential if you are making creative
decisions involving the color you specify in your document. (See
Calibrate and profile your monitor .)
Add color profiles to your system for any input and output devices you plan to use, such as scanners and printers.
The color management system uses profiles to know how a device produces color and what the actual colors in a
document are. Device profiles are often installed when a device is added to your system. You can also use third-party
software and hardware to create more accurate profiles for specific devices and conditions. If your document will be
commercially printed, contact your service provider to determine the profile for the printing device or press condition.
(See
About color profiles and Install a color profile .)
Set up color management in Adobe applications.
The default color settings are sufficient for most users. However, you can change the color settings by doing one of the
following:
• If you use multiple Adobe applications, use Adobe® Bridge to choose a standard color management configuration
and synchronize color settings across applications before working with documents. (See Synchronize color settings
across Adobe applications .)
• If you use only one Adobe application, or if you want to customize advanced color management options, you can
change color settings for a specific application. (See Set up color management .)
(Optional) Preview colors using a soft proof.
After you create a document, you can use a soft proof to preview how colors will look when printed or viewed on a
specific device. (See
Proofing colors .)
Note: A soft proof alone doesn’t let you preview how overprinting will look when printed on an offset press. If you work with
documents that contain overprinting, turn on Overprint Preview to accurately preview overprints in a soft proof.
Use color management when printing and saving files.
Keeping the appearance of colors consistent across all of the devices in your workflow is the goal of color management.
Leave color management options enabled when printing documents, saving files, and preparing files for online
viewing. (See
Color-managing PDFs for printing (Acrobat Pro) and Color-managing documents for online viewing .)
Synchronize color settings across Adobe applications
If you use Adobe Creative Suite, you can useAdobe Bridge to automatically synchronize color settings across
applications. This synchronization ensures that colors look the same in all color-managed Adobe applications.
If color settings are not synchronized, a warning message appears at the top of theColor Settings dialog box in each
application. Adobe recommends that you synchronize color settings before you work with new or existing documents.
1 Open Bridge.
To open Bridge from a Creative Suite application, choose File > Browse. To open Bridge directly, either choose
Adobe Bridge from the Start menu (Windows) or double-click the Adobe Bridge icon (Mac OS).