Specifying color management policies

Each predefined color management configuration sets up a color management policy for the RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale color modes and displays warning messages to let you override the default policy behavior on a case-by-case basis. If desired, you can change the default policy behavior to reflect a color management workflow that you use more often. For more information on policies, see About color management policies.

To customize color management policies:

1. In the Color Settings dialog box, under Color Management Policies, choose one of the following to set the default color management policy for each color mode:
• Off if you do not want to color-manage new, imported, or opened color data.
• Preserve Embedded Profiles if you anticipate working with a mix of color-managed and non-color-managed documents, or with documents that use different profiles within the same color mode.
• Convert to Working Space if you want to force all documents to use the current working space.

For detailed descriptions of the default behaviors associated with each policy option, see the table following this procedure.

2. For Profile Mismatches, select either, both, or neither of the following:
• Ask When Opening to display a message whenever you open a document tagged with a profile other than the current working space. You will be given the option to override the policy's default behavior.
• Ask When Pasting to display a message whenever color profile mismatches occur as colors are imported into a document (via pasting, drag-and-drop, placing, and so on). You will be given the option to override the policy's default behavior.

The availability of options for Profile Mismatches depends on which policies have been specified.

3. For Missing Profiles, select Ask When Opening to display a message whenever you open an untagged document. You will be given the option to override the policy's default behavior.

The availability of options for Missing Profiles depends on which policies have been specified.

It is strongly recommended that you keep the Ask When Opening and Ask When Pasting options selected.

Policy option	Default color management behavior
Off	New documents and existing untagged documents remain untagged. Existing documents tagged with a profile other than the current working space become untagged. Existing documents tagged with the current working space profile remain tagged. For color data imported into a document using the same color mode, color numbers are preserved. For all other import cases, colors are converted to the document's color space.
Preserve Embedded Profiles	New documents are tagged with the current working space profile. Existing documents tagged with a profile other than the current working space remain tagged with the original embedded profile. Existing untagged documents use the current working space for editing but remain untagged. For color data imported within the same color mode between either a non-color-managed source or destination, or from a CMYK document into a CMYK document, color numbers are preserved. For all other import cases, colors are converted to the document's color space.
Convert to Working Space	New documents are tagged with the current working space profile. Existing documents tagged with a profile other than the current working space are converted to and tagged with the working space profile. Existing untagged documents use the current working space for editing but remain untagged. For color data imported within the same color mode between either a non-color-managed source or destination, color numbers are preserved. For all other import cases, colors are converted to the document's color space.