Color Workflows for Adobe Creative Suite 3

Getting Started

You can choose from a variety of workflows to help you effectively manage color appearance in Adobe Creative Suite 3. First select the most appropriate workflow for you, and then select a Color Settings file (CSF) to manage color for that workflow.

Choosing a workflow

Use this table to find the workflow most relevant to you.

Table 1. Choosing a relevant workflow

If you are a…	Working in this market…	Sending to the following device	Go to
Prepress professional	Traditional and digital commercial printing	Printing press (for example, offset, Flexo, or Gravure), digital printing press	CMYK Commercial Print Workflow. Users adding RGB to their workflow should also see Mixed RGB and CMYK Print Workflow.
Graphic designer	Commercial printing, publishing	Printing press	CMYK Commercial Print Workflow.
Graphic designer	Internet publishing, web-based or computer-based training	On-screen display	Web Publishing RGB Workflow
Digital photo professional	Photography	Photo lab, RGB printer	RGB Photo Print Workflow

Calibrating your monitor

To ensure accurate viewing of colors in your CS3 workflow, it is highly recommended that you calibrate and profile your monitor. Creating an accurate ICC profile for your monitor will allow the Color Management System to compensate for the unique characteristics of your monitor. If you are viewing colors on a Macintosh monitor with a gamma of 1.8 and a workflow partner is viewing colors on a PC with a monitor set to gamma 2.2, the Color Management System will compensate for that difference and display CS3 document colors consistently on both monitors.

For the highest quality results, Adobe recommends that you use a professional calibration package, with a hardware measurement device.

Selecting Color Settings files from Adobe Bridge

Selecting the correct Color Settings file (CSF) to manage color depends on your workflow. Each CSF is based on a common workflow, such as Web/Internet or Prepress, that users can select from one central location in Adobe Bridge. Adobe Bridge synchronizes all Adobe Creative Suite 3 components to use the same settings, now including Acrobat 8 Professional.

The preset values in the CSF determine the color management behavior in all Adobe Creative Suite 3 components, such as how embedded profiles are handled, what the default RGB and CMYK working spaces are, and whether warnings appear when embedded profiles are missing or don’t match the working space.

Using Adobe Bridge to select a CSF ensures that color is handled consistently and displays and prints the same way from all Adobe Creative Suite 3 components, including Acrobat 8.0 Professional.

To select a CSF from Adobe Bridge:

Choose Edit > Creative Suite Color Settings.
In the Suite Color Settings dialog box (Figure 2), select the relevant CSF:
- For a CMYK commercial print workflow, choose the North America General Purpose 2 color setting. This option sets the default CMYK working space to U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.
- For a mixed RGB and CMYK print workflow or RGB photo print workflow, choose the North America Prepress 2 setting. This option sets the RGB working space to Adobe RGB (1998) and the CMYK working space to U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.
- For a web publishing RGB workflow, choose the North America Web/Internet CSF setting. This selection sets the default RGB working space to sRGB across the Creative Suite 3 components.
Figure 2. Use Adobe Bridge to select the CSF that matches your workflow. (Use the North America Prepress 2 CSF for the Mixed RGB-CMYK print and RGB photo print workflows).
Click Apply to synchronize all Adobe Creative Suite 3 components to this CSF.

For more information on color settings, see Adobe Creative Suite 3 Help.