Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 1 of 13

Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator

Usage of ICC printer profiles; written for Adobe® Illustrator®
versions 11 (CS), 12 (CS2), Mac OS® and Windows®.

Contents
1. Introduction................................................................ 2
2. Preparation................................................................. 3
2.1 Color Settings in Illustrator................................... 3
2.2 About the printer.................................................. 5
2.3 Rendering intent................................................... 6
2.4 Where to place an ICC or ICM file....................... 7
3. Printing with ICC printer profiles................................. 8
3.1 Open a document................................................ 8
3.2 Print...................................................................... 9
4. Copyright.................................................................. 12

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 2 of 13

1. Introduction

This document is a guide on how to print

documents from Adobe® Illustrator® using ICC profiles.
It is also written to promote the use of Midox Color's Profile Service,
a convenient and affordable way to obtain professional custom ICC profiles.

To be able to create an ICC profile for a printer, a testchart needs to be printed. A testchart consists
of one or more image files containing a number of patches. The print(s) from a testchart can be
measured using a spectrophotometer and these measurements can then be used to create the
profile. Midox Color has several testcharts available for creating ICC printer profiles, which are free
to download from the Midox Color website:

http://www.midox.nl/en/downloads.html

or:

http://www.midox-color.com/downloads.html

For most users, who print directly from an application to a printer on their computer, an RGB profile
is the correct choice. This is because most printer drivers - for Mac OS® and Windows® - are
created to handle RGB data. Midox Color has two testcharts for creating RGB profiles, of which
TC9.18 is most used for professional photo output. TC2.83 is less accurate (created from fewer
patches), but still gives high quality results, ideal for evaluation prints on cheaper materials.
Testcharts currently available:

RGB TC2.83
For creating RGB profiles using the TC2.83 standard.
Patch amount: 283

RGB TC9.18
For creating professional RGB profiles using the TC9.18 standard.
Patch amount: 918

CMYK TC3.5
For creating CMYK profiles using the TC3.5 standard.
Patch amount: 432

CMYK ECI2002
For creating professional CMYK profiles using the ECI2002 standard.
Patch amount: 1485

All testcharts come in multiple lay-outs and can be used for paper sizes as small as A6; (4x6 inch /
10x15 cm borderless). Not sure which testchart to choose? Or would you like to create printer
profiles for Hexachrome, CMYK-RB, CMYK-RG or a custom multicolor setup? Please contact Midox
Color.

Note: All profiles created by Midox Color comply with ICC Specification Version 4 (or Version 2 if
requested).

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 3 of 13

2. Preparation
2.1 Color Settings in Illustrator

Before you open any files, please check the color settings in the application. To open the Color
Settings dialog in Illustrator, choose from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut:

Windows: Edit > Color Settings...

Shift ⇧ + Ctrl + K

Mac OS: Edit > Color Settings...

Shift ⇧ + Command ⌘ + K

Being cautious it's wise to save your current settings; in the upper right corner of this dialog you'll find
buttons to Save... settings. If you already saved the desired settings from Photoshop®, select the
preset from the list of settings or click Load... and browse to the CSF file. Enable Advanced Mode
to view all settings.

Please check the following settings:

Color Management Policies

For all options please choose: Preserve Embedded Profiles.

Also enable Ask When Opening (2x) and Ask When Pasting.

Midox Color recommends using these settings in this section of the dialog. It makes sure Illustrator
handles files predictably. Whether profiles are embedded or not, Illustrator will always present you
with options when needed. All other settings in this dialog can be set to fit your own workflow or as
described below.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 4 of 13

The following settings are commonly used in workflows complying with ISO 12647-2:

Please keep in mind, that the settings for Working Spaces and Conversion Options are used, when
converting an image to the working space when opening the file, when converting an image to a
different mode (RGB or CMYK), and for translating color values in the Color Picker. When creating a
new document, the working space will be assigned to the new document. So when chosing Working
Spaces and Conversion Options, it's best to select the ones you use most frequent for your work.

To add ISO Coated v2 (ECI) or another working space profile to the list of available profiles, please
add the ICC file to your profle folder, as described in Where to place an ICC or ICM file (page 7).
The file (ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc) can be obtained from the ECI website, www.eci.org:

Description: http://eci.org/eci/en/041_offset.php
Downloads: http://eci.org/eci/en/060_downloads.php
Actual file: http://eci.org/eci/downloads/ECI-en/icc_profiles_from_eci/ECI_Offset_2007.zip

Note: Do not select your monitor profile as RGB working space.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 5 of 13

2.2 About the printer

A printer profile is created for a certain printer plus printing materials, but also for the software used
to drive the printer. This guide focuses on printing directly from an application to a printer using an
installed printer driver. A printer driver can have numerous settings that influence how the printer
produces color. Later on in this guide you will be prompted to select the correct settings. These
settings should be the same as when the testchart was printed, from which the chosen ICC printer
profile was created. Please focus on these two main issues, when selecting the printer settings:

1 - Disabling any form of automatic color correction.

This is mainly colormanagement and automatic image enhancement inside the

printer driver. This needs to be disabled, because Adobe will manage colors. You'll
find the settings among the settings/properties/preferences of your printer located
with the paper type settings and/or on a separate tab called Color, Color Options or
Color Management. All depends on your make and type of printer and the driver
installed. The particular setting(s) may be called:

No Color Adjustment (on)

Disable ICM (on)
ICM (off)
ColorSync (off)
PhotoEnhance (off)
Colorsmart (off)

In some cases you have to enable options like Colormanagement, Color

Adjustment or ICM to be able to choose No Colormanagement, No Color
Adjustment or Disable ICM. Or you may be able to choose an option called
Managed by application or Application managed colors. Please refer to the
printer's manual or the internet to discover how to switch off colormanagement and/or
automatic color adjustment for your printer.

2 - Choosing the right paper settings.

Select the paper type settings the profile was created for. The paper type settings
control how the printer will dose it's colors. In some cases there are additional options
to control this. For example color correction controls or ink volume control for overall
ink usage or individual inks.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

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2.3 Rendering intent

When printing documents using an ICC printer profile, you have the option of choosing a rendering
intent. There are four options to choose from. Saturation will preserve saturation as much as
possible and is rarely used for printing photographic images. Absolute Colorimetric is used for
proof printing, which is not covered in this manual. Relative Colorimetric is used to print colors as
consistent as possible while correcting for difference in white point. All colors will appear just right,
when the print is viewed under a light source the profile was created for. This is D50 by default
(5000º Kelvin), but can be another light source. Perceptual is a rendering intent often used for
photographic images. Colors from the source document will be converted proportionally into the
destination print space. This way relations between different colors are kept intact as much as
possible.

Midox Color recommends using Relative Colorimetric with Black Point Compensation as default
and Perceptual as a safe alternative. Some (exaggerated) examples where a perceptual rendering
intent is desirable:

Original - flowers

Relative Colorimetric Perceptual

An array of bright colors that doesn't Same array of bright colors that
exist in the destination space is doesn't exist in the destination space
converted to the same color. is now converted to multiple colors.

Original - stones in shadow

Relative Colorimetric Perceptual

An array of dark colors that doesn't Same array of dark colors that
exist in the destination space is doesn't exist in the destination space
converted to the same color. is now converted to multiple colors.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

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2.4 Where to place an ICC or ICM file

Before you can select a profile from any list of available profiles in Adobe applications, you have to
copy or move the ICC or ICM file to the correct location on your system, using Finder™, Explorer or
another filebrowser. In some cases, you may need to restart the application in order to see the profile
in the list. Below you'll find the paths where ICC files can be placed. Midox Color recommends using
the common profile folder for your operating system, marked with ←.

Path operating systems:

Mac OS X: /Library/ColorSync/Profiles ←

or: /System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles

or: /Users/your_username_here/Library/ColorSync/Profiles

Mac OS 8 or 9: System Folder > ColorSync Profiles ←

Windows XP: C:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\color ←

Windows 2000: C:\winnt\system32\spool\drivers\color ←

Windows NT: C:\winnt\system32\color ←

Windows 95/98/ME: C:\windows\system\color ←

Path Adobe applications:

Windows: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Color\Profiles

or: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Color\Profiles\Recommended

Mac OS X: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles

or: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended

Mac OS 8 or 9: System Folder > Application Support > Adobe > Color > Profiles

or: Sys... > Application Support > Adobe > Color > Profiles > Recommended

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

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3. Printing with ICC printer profiles

3.1 Open a document

Open a document in Illustrator. If the document has an embedded profile, same as the current
working space, there will be no color warning. Proceed with Print (page 9).

If the document has an embedded profile that doesn't match with the current working space, all
versions will give the following dialog:

Here choose:

• Use the embedded profile

Click OK.

Note: Did you create a new document, then the document will be assigned the current working
space. If the document has no profile embedded, Illustrator will present a warning dialog, where the
appropriate profile can be assigned. In the following example an Adobe RGB (1998) document is
used.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

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3.2 Print

In Illustrator choose File > Print... from the menu or use the keyboard shortcut:

Ctrl + P (Windows)

Command ⌘ + P (Mac OS)

In the print dialog, please start with selecting the right Printer from the pull-down menu. Select
settings for format, orientation and size for the current print job:

Please leave the Output section set to Composite:

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

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Version 11 (CS), at the Print Space section on the Color Management tab:

Profile: select your printer profile from the list

Intent: choose between Relative Colorimetric or Perceptual

Version 12 (CS2), at the Print Method section on the Color Management tab:

Color Handling: select Let Illustrator Determine Colors

Printer Profile: select your printer profile from the list
Rendering Intent: choose between Relative Colorimetric or Perceptual
(Do not enable Preserve Numbers)

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 11 of 13

Finally Mac OS users click on Printer... and enter the printer settings tabs from the bottom pull-down
menu, which first reads Copies & Pages.

Windows users click on Setup... opening the Print setup window and click Preferences to open the
settings dialog of the selected printer.

The appearance and available options of the following dialogs and tabs depend on your operating
system and installed printer driver. Please select all color-related settings the chosen ICC printer
profile was created for.

Load the settings you saved or noted when printing the testchart.

Did you have to adjust one or more settings for the current job, after loading
saved settings; i.e. the paper format? Then please check all color-related
settings. Changing some settings may cause default settings to become active.

If you don't know which settings were used, then please disable the printer's
colormanagement and/or automatic color correction and choose paper type
settings that best describe the materials you are using.

See also About the printer (page 5).

Mac OS: The ColorSync-tab can be left in it's default setting, as ColorSync will not be
used. On OS X, any printer's settings can be saved as a preset. The print dialog has
a pull-down menu, where presets can be loaded or saved. If you load an existing
preset and then change some of the settings for a particular job, then please save or
save a new preset.

Windows: In the printer settings dialog, you may need to enter Advanced... to find
all relevant settings. One set of custom printer settings can be saved by setting a
printer's Printing Preferences.... These will then become the default settings for that
particular printer. Additional presets can only be saved when the printer driver offers
this function.

Click Print to go back to the Illustrator Print dialog and click Print to print the document.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 12 of 13

4. Copyright

Copyright © 2007 Midox Color. Some Rights Reserved.

Title: Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator
Author: M.G. van Dijk

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5

License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105,
USA.

Creative Commons Deed

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5

You are free:

• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this
work.
• Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.

Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.

This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license).

Disclaimer

Adobe, Illustrator and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems
Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with
permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated. Mac OS and Finder are trademarks of Apple
Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

First PDF edition published by Midox Color, March 2007, www.midox.nl.

2007 – Midox Color – www.midox.nl

 Printing with Profiles - Adobe Illustrator - Page 13 of 13

Midox Color

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The Netherlands
Europe

www: www.midox.nl
e-mail: info@midox.nl
phone: +31 (0)70 71 10 353

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