Digital BW, The Print

> Snip
>> Then, presuming you have set your color setting Color Management Policies to
>> "Preserve Embedded Profiles" for both RGB and Grayscale you will always have
>> the right profile embedded after doing conversions.
>> 
>> Clear as mud isn't it?
> 
> I'm kinda following along. Thanks.
> 
> Now in PS 6, in the case that my files are for my system only, what is the
> downside to not applying a profile to those which have none, to just leaving
> it untagged? And I've heard it recommended that even when sharing files,
> grayscale files are best left untagged, not clear why though. What do you
> think?
> 
> Todd

In raw files, right after you scan them without any adjustment, saving them
with no assigned profile is probably a good idea - raw is raw and "no
profile" says that.  But you need to be in a working space of some sort for
Photoshop to accurately display the file consistently from monitor to
monitor.  A raw file will look different on every computer it is opened on.
With a profile assigned the changes you make to a file will be referenced in
a way that it will appear very similar on all monitors (in Photoshop that is
- other applications may not use the assigned profile at all).  Not sure why
you would avoid assigning a profile unless you were concerned someone might
open it in an application without color management.  Even then, as long as
you are in a standard 1.8 gamma working space (for non-profiled Mac
monitors) or a 2.2 gamma working space (for non-profiled PC monitors) there
wouldn't be much of a problem.  In fact - you might want to consider that
with no profile assigned you are by default in either a 1.8 or 2.2 gamma
working space -- you just have no idea which one the file was saved under so
it may look too dark or too light when you open it.  If the file never
leaves your computer and you never change monitors it is probably moot.  If
you are sharing files and very worried about file size you might want to
avoid embedded profiles (they add a wee bit to the file size) but then you
have to tell the recipient which working space to assign to get a proper
monitor view.  Beats me -- only time I don't assign profiles to files is
when they are target prints for making profiles.  I know there are people
out there who don't like color management at all and think profiles are the
devils spawn so maybe....

-- Dan Culbertson
so many years, so little time...