ICC Profile
Also known as: Color profile
What Is an ICC Profile?
An ICC profile, often just called a color profile, is a data file that describes how a device or a color space reproduces color. It follows a standard from the International Color Consortium (ICC) and maps the device’s colors to a shared reference that no device owns, Lab or CIE XYZ. A conversion uses two profiles: one to read the colors from the source, one to write them for the destination.
Any device that captures or shows color can be profiled. CE.SDK uses an ICC profile to preview and convert CMYK colors, and its Print Ready PDF plugin embeds one in every PDF/X file it creates.
Why Should Files Carry an Embedded Profile?
Color values on their own don’t say which color they mean. The same RGB or CMYK numbers look different from one device to the next, so a file without a profile, often called untagged, leaves the software to guess. Embedding the profile attaches that meaning to the file.
Print files take this a step further. PDF/X requires an output intent, the profile of the printing condition the colors were prepared for, so the press knows what the file expects.
Which ICC Profile Should You Use?
Use the profile your print shop names, since the right one depends on where the job prints and on which paper. When it doesn’t, these are the common standard profiles, by region and paper.
| Region | Paper and press | |
|---|---|---|
| PSO Coated v3 (FOGRA51) | Europe | Coated paper, sheetfed offset, the current standard |
| ISO Coated v2 (FOGRA39) | Europe | Coated paper, sheetfed offset, the older standard |
| PSO Uncoated v3 (FOGRA52) | Europe | Uncoated paper, sheetfed offset |
| GRACoL 2013 (CRPC6) | North America | Coated paper, commercial sheetfed printing |
| SWOP 2013 (CRPC5) | North America | Magazine and catalog paper, web offset |
| Japan Color 2011 Coated | Japan | Coated paper |
Where Do You Get an ICC Profile?
Profiles come as files ending in .icc or .icm. There are three usual sources.
Your print shop
The best profile describes the exact press and paper your job runs on, and the shop that owns them can supply it.
Standards bodies
ECI publishes the European standard profiles and Idealliance the GRACoL and SWOP ones. The ICC keeps a registry that lists them.
Your own measurements
Print a test chart of color patches, measure it with a spectrophotometer, and profiling software builds a profile from the readings.
What Are ICC Rendering Intents?
When a color falls outside what the destination can reproduce, the rendering intent decides where it goes. The ICC defines four, and relative colorimetric moves an out-of-range color to the closest one the destination can print.
| What it does | Best for | |
|---|---|---|
| Perceptual | Shifts all colors to fit, keeping their balance | Photos |
| Relative colorimetric | Keeps colors that fit, moves the rest | Most graphics |
| Saturation | Favors vivid color over accuracy | Charts and business graphics |
| Absolute colorimetric | Also simulates the source paper | Proofs |
How Does CE.SDK Use ICC Profiles?
Set the document’s profile
Load the CMYK profile your printer supplies, from a URL or from the file itself. It is saved with the scene and in scene archives, and a file that isn’t a valid CMYK profile is rejected while the previous profile stays in place.
Know which profile applies
A CMYK image with its own embedded profile uses that profile for the image. Everything else uses the document’s profile, then a fallback set for the editor, and finally a bundled profile that models a US press.
Pick the rendering intent
All four ICC intents are available. Relative colorimetric is the default, with black point compensation turned on.
Export with the right profile
Image exports convert CMYK to RGB with the document’s profile. For print, the Print Ready PDF plugin embeds an output profile in the PDF/X file: FOGRA39 for European offset, GRACoL 2013 for US commercial printing, sRGB for files that stay digital, or your own.
ICC Profiles in Print Storefronts and Photo Uploads
A print shop’s own profile
A print shop supplies the profile for its press, and the storefront editor loads it into every document, so the colors customers see follow that press.
CMYK photo uploads
A customer uploads a CMYK photo with its own embedded profile. CE.SDK reads the photo with that profile, while the rest of the page follows the document’s.
FAQs
A color space is a defined range of colors, such as sRGB. An ICC profile is the file that describes a device or a color space precisely enough for software to convert colors into or out of it, which is why sRGB also comes as an ICC profile.
No. They are the same ICC profile format with two file extensions, and .icm is the name more common on Windows.
Browsers treat an image without a profile as sRGB, so sRGB images display as intended without one. An image in a wider color space, such as Display P3, should keep its embedded profile.
Links
Documentation and references for this concept.
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