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source. If there is no profile embedded, then the document stays that way. If there is a profile mismatch between the source and the workspace, the dialog shown in Figure 12.21 points out that if you click OK the embedded profile will be deleted. Or, you will see the dialog shown on Figure 12.22, if the ‘Ask When Opening’ box is checked in the Profile Mismatches section. If the source profile matches the workspace, there is no need to remove the profile. In this instance the profile tag will not be removed (even so, you can still remove the ICC profile at the saving stage). Therefore, Photoshop is still able to color manage certain files and strictly speaking is not completely ‘off’. Turning the color management off is not recommended for general Photoshop work, so do check the Color Settings to make sure Photoshop's color management hasn't been disabled, especially if working on an unfamiliar computer.

Figure 12.21 If the Color Management ‘Off’ policy is selected (but without checking ‘Ask When Opening’ in the Profile Mismatches section), this dialog will appear whenever there is a profile mismatch between the image you are opening and the current working space. When you see this dialog, click OK to discard the embedded profile. Click ‘Don't show again’ if you don't wish to be reminded each time this occurs.

Figure 12.22 If the Color Management ‘Off’ policy is selected and the ‘Ask When Opening’ box is checked in the Profile Mismatches section, you will see the dialog shown here. You can make a choice on opening to discard the embedded profile, use the embedded profile or convert to the working space.

When it is good to ‘turn off’

Sometimes it is desirable to discard a profile. For example, you may be aware that the image you are about to open has an incorrect profile and it is therefore a good thing to discard it and assign the correct profile later in Photoshop. I still would not recommend choosing ‘Off’ as the default setting though. Just make sure you have the Color Management Policies set to ‘Ask When Opening’ and you can easily intervene and discard the profile when using the ‘Preserve Embedded Profiles’ or ‘Convert to Working RGB’ color management policies settings.

Profile conversions

As you gain more experience you will soon be able to create your own customized color settings. The minimum you need to know is ‘which of the listed color settings are appropriate for the work you are doing’. To help in this decision making, you can read the text descriptions that appear in the Description box at the bottom of the Color Settings dialog. The section that's now coming up deals with how to make profile conversions once files have been opened in Photoshop, as well as how to assign different profiles where it is necessary to do so.

RGB to RGB conversion warning

A Convert to Profile is just like any other image mode change in Photoshop, such as converting from RGB to Grayscale mode, and it is much safer to use than the old Profile to Profile command in Photoshop 5.0. However, be careful if you use Convert to Profile to produce targeted RGB outputs that overwrite the original RGB master. Any version of Photoshop since version 6.0 will have no problem reading the embedded profiles and displaying the image correctly; and will recognize any profile mismatch (and know how to convert back to the original workspace). As always, customized RGB files such as this may easily confuse other non-ICC savvy Photoshop users. Not everyone is using Photoshop, nor does everyone have their color management configured correctly. Some RGB to RGB conversions can produce RGB images that look fine on a correctly configured system, but look very odd on one that is not (see page 658).

Convert to Profile

Even if you choose to preserve the embedded profile on opening, it can be useful to convert non-workspace files to your current workspace after opening. This is where the Convert to Profile command comes in, because you can use it to carry out a profile conversion at any time, such as at the end of a retouch session,