Color Management Profiles

Fabric and trim images added to pieces can be used in digital printing. To ensure that colors match well through the process, color management profiles have been added to the image selection options in Pattern Design. A color management profile is a mathematical description of the color used in an image. All devices and software used in the process can be mapped to this profile to assist in color matching. All images assigned in PDS now require a color management source profile to be assigned to the selected image.

If an image contains an embedded profile, that profile is honored but the user may change it at any time. There is a new command in the File menu called Color Management. Selections made in this function define how the color profile should be selected for each type of image. This selection would be applied when an embedded profile is not found in the image. “Always Ask” will prompt at the time the image is placed for a selection. If a profile is selected here, it will be used each time for that type of image.

If “Always Ask” is selected, you will see this dialog when an image is selected with no embedded color profile:

The dialog shows the color space of the image, the image path/name and gives a list of all the image’s color space profiles on their system. Select the color profile to use in this dialog and select OK. If you find you are always selecting the same color profile, click on Preferences and select it as the Default.

In the Edit Image function, the assigned profile can be seen and changed as with images in the Image Properties dialog.

In this example the system found that the selected image has an embedded profile and we will use it for the assignment. At any time the user is allowed to select a different profile using the lookup button following the profile name. You will notice if we do this with an image that has an embedded profile the user is given the option to select any proper color space profile or the image’s embedded profile.

 

All system color management profiles reside in the following folder:

C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color