Mac OS

In the past, PostScript printers handled color space conversions. Now with Mac OS X Tiger, you can choose to have your Mac handle color conversions rather than using the PostScript printer for processing, which can dramatically accelerate color conversions. In your printer driver, choose ColorSync from the pop-up menu as shown in the figure below. If the driver can use this feature, you’ll see two options in the Color Conversion pop-up menu: Standard and In Printer. If the Standard option is selected, your Mac will process the data, taking advantage of the power of its processor. For example, ColorSync can use the power of a Power Mac G5 to greatly speed up the color space conversions, as compared with In Printer, which uses the printer hardware. Setting In Printer option for PostScript in Mac OS X.

You have seen how virtual color proofing can be used in several applications to examine the color of your files. Using the Preview button in the Print dialog, you can also see color-accurate previews at print time from any printer driver. Once you click this button, your print job appears in the Preview application as an accurate soft proof using that printer’s color profile. If everything looks as you wish, simply click the Print button to send the color-managed file to the output device. You can update the various options in the Print dialog and regenerate PDF soft proofs in Preview until you are satisfied with the results, and then send the data to the printer. The Preview button in the standard Print dialog of Mac OS X.

ColorSync Utility lets you view and edit ICC profiles and view specific details integral/Network/Library/ColorSync/Profiles to managing professional workflows. Click the triangle in the top corner of the profile list to choose how the profiles are sorted—by location, class, or color space. Click the disclosure triangles in the profile list to show or hide profiles based on the current sorting. You can also select a profile in the list to display its name, location, origin, creation date, and more. You’ll notice that every profile has an internal name that describes the device and its utilization, in addition to filenames determined by the operating system that created them. For example, the file might be named “pcdcnycc.pf,” but its internal descriptive name is more complete: “KODAK Photo CD Color Negative V3.0.” ColorSync Utility lets you inspect detailed information about each profile, including headers, tags, and color gamuts. You can even plot the gamut as a 3D shape—making it easy to compare the relative color spaces of different devices. Because color spaces are three-dimensional, you can drag the gamut map to rotate it. You can also compare the color gamut of two profiles using ColorSync Utility; for example, the gamut of your desktop printer compared with the gamut of a commercial printer. Ideally, you want the printer that proofs color to have a gamut at least as large as that of the final output device, or you will not be able to print the full color gamut.