Yet another sad/funny article on color management

[earlybird]

I just did a "Save As" and changed the Byte Order to PC in the TIFF save dialog and now it opens directly in my Win7 Photoshop CS6 install with the Camera RAW preferences reset from "Disable TIFF Support" to the "Automatically open TIFFs with settings" defaults.

I guess it was a saved on Mac and open in Windows mystery.



Thank you for describing the need to use a Custom profile for proper sRGB soft proof.

[digitaldog]

I guess it was a saved on Mac and open in Windows mystery.

Yes, it was created on a Mac. But it's odd, I've never heard anyone report this issue and if we're talking about the original Printer Test File (in ColorMatch RGB), it's really, really old. FWIW, a newer Printer Test File in Adobe RGB (1998) is: http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip

[earlybird]

Yes, it was created on a Mac. But it's odd, I've never heard anyone report this issue and if we're talking about the original Printer Test File (in ColorMatch RGB), it's really, really old. FWIW, a newer Printer Test File in Adobe RGB (1998) is: http://www.digitaldog.net/files/2014PrinterTestFileFlat.tif.zip

This is the test file I was speaking about. I downloaded it approximately 1 hour ago to try the demonstration you suggested. I just downloaded it again and with my Camera RAW settings set at the default "Automatically open TIFFs with settings" Adobe Camera RAW opens when I try to open your TIFF in Photoshop.

It's no big deal. I was just trying to understand how/why I have been opening TIFFs, with ACR installed since it was first released, yet have never encountered the circumstance where a TIFF opens in ACR rather than opening directly in Photoshop. It seems to be related to the byte order.

Thanks again. I have a few further questions about the color management ideas being discussed in this thread. Now I can move on to thinking about how to ask them, but first I want to watch your Photoshop Color Settings video.

Thank you.

[digitaldog]

This is the test file I was speaking about.

Like the other, it opens as a TIFF in Photoshop, on this end.

[earlybird]

Someone mentioned the "preserve RGB numbers" choice. What was the implication of that comment?

You will see the wrong colors, it is the equivalent of "assign" a color space instead of "convert" to a color space. In general, that option should never be used.

Let me see if I have this right: If you "Preserve RGB numbers" the numeric values in your file remain unchanged but another color space is "assigned" so when the "numbers" are presented literally we perceive a shift in color?

And: If you do not "Preserve RGB numbers" the numeric values in your file are "converted" so that we do not perceive a shift in color.

Is that idea and the corollary correct?

Thank you.

[digitaldog]

Let me see if I have this right: If you "Preserve RGB numbers" the numeric values in your file remain unchanged but another color space is "assigned" so when the "numbers" are presented literally we perceive a shift in color?

The easiest way to think of this is: What will the current RGB (or CMYK) numbers look like if you output them to the device without using that device profile to convert the values. You have the output profile so Photoshop knows what it's supposed to receive and how to soft proof the RGB number through that profile. You're asking Photoshop to now show you what those existing numbers would produce without converting to that output profile. Don't get caught up in Assign profile stuff, that's not the idea behind what Preserve RGB numbers is trying to show you. How ugly would a print be if you sent X set of numbers to Y device without converting to Y's output color space. UGLY.


This obviously wasn't understood or tested by Lisa Snider who still managed to produce a screen capture of this wrong setting in her silly article.

[earlybird]

Thank you.

I think I get it now.