Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

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Chapter 3: Working with Color
amiliarity with color theory and termi-
nology can help you understand how color 
is measured and how Adobe Photoshop 
Elements uses this information to define, display, 
and print color values. You can apply colors and 
make color and tonal adjustments using the color 
information of an image.
About color and computer 
graphics
Objects appear to be certain colors because of their 
ability to reflect, absorb, or transmit light, which 
we perceive as color. Our eyes are sensitive enough 
to perceive thousands of different colors in the 
spectrum of visible light—including many colors 
that cannot be displayed on a color monitor or 
printed on a desktop printer.
When creating computer graphics, each piece of 
equipment you work with to reproduce color—
such as a scanner, color monitor, and desktop 
printer—is called a device. Each type of device 
reproduces a different range of color, called a color 
gamut
. Even similar devices, such as two monitors 
made by the same manufacturer, can show the 
same color differently. As you move an image from 
one device to another, its colors can shift in 
appearance, sometimes resulting in dramatic 
changes.
Using color management
A color management system is used to achieve 
color consistency between different devices. 
Ideally, this means that the colors on your monitor 
accurately represent both the colors in the scanned 
image and the colors you will see when the 
image is printed. Photoshop Elements follows a 
color management workflow based on conven-
tions developed by the International Color 
Consortium (ICC).
An ICC workflow uses color profiles to determine 
how colors in a file translate to actual color 
appearances. By associating, or tagging, an image 
with a color profile, you provide a definition of 
actual color appearances in the image; changing 
the associated profile changes the color appear-
ances. Images without associated profiles are 
known as untagged and contain only raw colors. 
To create a color-managed image:
1
Open a file and choose Edit > Color Settings.
2
Select a color management option, and 
click OK:
No color management to associate no color 
profile with the image.
Limited color management to tag the image with 
a standard color profile for Web graphics.
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