Now begins
the process of configuring Photoshop for how we want it to handle colour
in our documents. This is achieved through the new "Color
Settings" dialog found under the "Edit" menu.
The new "Color Settings" dialog is the control room
for the Photoshop 6 colour management system, and like all control rooms
it's complicated. The default setting is "Web Graphics Default",
but this is certainly not the best. The sooner we get things moulded into our own preferred configuration the sooner we can begin working
with Photoshop 6 in earnest.
I will work my way through each section of the "Color
Settings" dialog in turn. Note the "Description"
box at the bottom of the dialog. As the mouse is moved across the
various pop-up menus, etc. you should see a short but informative
explanation of what each menu does. Also note the checkbox labelled
"Advanced Mode", it's probably best that you select it
now. At least that way you will see everything that the "Color
Settings" has to offer, even if some are only applicable to the
most advanced of Photoshop users.
The
first section is labelled "Settings"; this is simply a
pop-up menu with a list of pre-set Photoshop settings, plus any that you
may have saved. You need not worry too much about this section just yet.
Working Spaces
The next section is labelled "Working Spaces", and
as I discussed earlier it will determine the working space of certain
images, namely the 3 types I mentioned above.
There are four types of Working Space in Photoshop, RGB, CMYK, Grey
and Spot. For the purposes of this exercise I will concentrate mainly on
the RGB color space, since the other three are of no real importance if
you're printing colour images to a consumer class inkjet printer from
Epson/Canon/HP. If you're really interested in the others read the
material by Andrew Rodney and Chris Murphy that I
mentioned earlier.
RGB - Working Space
Clicking the RGB pop-up menu with the mouse will produce a list of
options similar to that shown below. I chose "Adobe RGB (1998)"
because it's the Working Space I settled on when using Photoshop 5.
Notice that Adobe RGB (1998) appears within a group of four Working
Spaces, each of which is device-independent, and in common use with a
wide range of Photoshop users. Typically "sRGB" will be
confined to those users solely interested in web design, "ColorMatch"
is a favoured choice of many Mac users and "AppleRGB"
is apparently for Mac web design.
Notice that just above the four common Working Spaces we have "Monitor
RGB" (green spot in the screen grab), and in the case of Mac
systems "ColorSync RGB". "Monitor RGB"
is simply the Working Space of your monitor as created by the Adobe
Gamma utility (or a 3rd party software/hardware combination).
Unlike version 5 Photoshop 6 no longer shows in any obvious way,
which monitor profile is being used. However, a quick check for "Monitor
RGB" in the RGB Working Space pop-up should put your mind at
rest. It is possible to select your monitor space as the Photoshop
Working Space, but this is not really a good idea. "ColorSync RGB"
is ONLY available to Mac users and will reflect the settings chosen as
part of the ColorSync 3.x setup.
The actual list of options available for selection as Working Spaces
differs depending on whether you activated Advanced Mode, or not. If you
chose to activate Advanced Mode then the list of available RGB profiles
will be quite extensive.
If you had previously been using another Working Space such as "BruceRGB"
then it should also appear as one of the options in this extended list.
If it doesn't then you can create the Working Space yourself by choosing
"Custom" (yellow spot in the screen grab). The dialog
below appears and you simply type in the data as shown for the Primaries
etc, remember to give this new Working Space a name and click "OK".
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