Using a safe CMYK workflow

A safe CMYK workflow ensures that CMYK color numbers are preserved all the way to the final output device, as opposed to being converted by your color management system. This workflow is beneficial if you want to incrementally adopt color management practices. For example, you can use CMYK profiles to soft-proof and hard-proof documents without the possibility of unintended color conversions occurring during final output.

Illustrator and InDesign support a safe CMYK workflow by default. As a result, when you open or import a CMYK image with an embedded profile, the application ignores the profile and preserves the raw color numbers. If you want your application to adjust color numbers based on an embedded profile, change the CMYK color policy to Preserve Embedded Profiles in the Color Settings dialog box. You can easily restore the safe CMYK workflow by changing the CMYK color policy back to Preserve Numbers (Ignore Linked Profiles).

You can override safe CMYK settings when you print a document or save it to PDF. However, doing so may cause colors to be reseparated. For example, pure CMYK black objects may be reseparated as rich black. For more information on color management options for printing and saving PDFs, search in Help.

Source: Adobe

Color-managing imported images (Illustrator, InDesign)

How imported images are integrated into a document’s color space depends on whether or not the image has an embedded profile:

• When you import an image that contains no profile, the Adobe application uses the current document profile to define the colors in the image.

• When you import an image that contains an embedded profile, color policies in the Color Settings dialog box determine how the Adobe application handles the profile.

Source: Adobe

Appending Pages to a PDF

Managing process and spot colors

When color management is on, any color you apply or create within a color-managed Adobe application automatically uses a color profile that corresponds to the document. If you switch color modes, the color management system uses the appropriate profiles to translate the color to the new color model you choose.

Keep in mind the following guidelines for working with process and spot colors:

• Choose a CMYK working space that matches your CMYK output conditions to ensure that you can accurately define and view process colors.

• Select colors from a color library. Adobe applications come with several standard color libraries, which you can load using the Swatches palette menu.

• (Acrobat, Illustrator, and InDesign) Turn on Overprint Preview to get an accurate and consistent preview of spot colors.

• (Acrobat, Illustrator, and InDesign) Use Lab values (the default) to display predefined spot colors (such as colors from the TOYO, PANTONE, DIC, and HKS libraries) and convert these colors to process colors. Using Lab values provides the greatest accuracy and guarantees the consistent display of colors across Creative Suite applications. If you want the display and output of these colors to match earlier versions of Illustrator or InDesign, use CMYK equivalent values instead. For instructions on switching between Lab values and CMYK values for spot colors, search Illustrator or InDesign Help.

Note: Color-managing spot colors provides a close approximation of a spot color on your proofing device and monitor. However, it is difficult to exactly reproduce a spot color on a monitor or proofing device because many spot color inks exist outside the gamuts of many of those devices.

Source:Adobe