Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

Page of 296
CHAPTER 3
66
Working with Color
Full color management to tag the image with 
a standard color profile for print graphics. The 
exact color profile depends on the color mode of 
the image.
3
Choose File > Save As, and select ICC Profile 
(Windows) or Embed Color Profile (Mac OS) in 
the Save As dialog box.
4
Finish saving the image, as described in “Saving 
Calibrating your monitor
For color management to work effectively, you 
must calibrate your computer monitor. The Adobe 
Gamma utility, which is automatically installed 
into your Control Panels folder, lets you calibrate 
and characterize your monitor to a standard and 
then save the settings as an ICC-compliant profile. 
This calibration helps you eliminate any color cast 
in your monitor, make your monitor grays as 
neutral as possible, and standardize image display 
across different monitors.
Monitor color performance changes and 
degrades over time; recharacterize your 
monitor every month or so. If you find it difficult or 
impossible to calibrate your monitor to a standard, it 
may be too old and faded.
Monitor calibration involves adjusting video 
settings, which may be unfamiliar to you. 
A monitor profile uses these settings to precisely 
describe how your monitor reproduces color.
Brightness and contrast
The overall level and 
range, respectively, of display intensity. These 
parameters work just as they do on a television set. 
Adobe Gamma helps you set an optimum 
brightness and contrast range for calibration.
Gamma
The brightness of the midtone values. 
The values produced by a monitor from black to 
white are nonlinear—if you graph the values, they 
form a curve, not a straight line. The gamma value 
defines the slope of that curve halfway between 
black and white. Gamma adjustment compensates 
for the nonlinear tonal reproduction of output 
devices such as monitor tubes.
Phosphors
The substance that monitors use to 
emit light. Different phosphors have different 
color characteristics.
White point
The coordinates (measured in the 
CIE XYZ color space) at which red, green, and blue 
phosphors at full intensity create white.
To calibrate your monitor using Adobe Gamma:
1
Do the following before you start the 
calibration process:
Make sure your monitor has been turned on for 
at least a half hour. This gives it sufficient time to 
warm up for a more accurate color reading.
Make sure your monitor is displaying thousands 
(16 bits) of colors or more.