How to get Custom Printing ICC profiles working in MacOS

I've had a lot of trouble with Adobe applications. Long story short (and caveat, I think other users might have different experiences here), I found that in order to use custom icc profiles correctly, one needs a software that allows selecting a custom icc profile in-App, like in Photoshop's print dialog; and on top of that, one has to go to the MacOS's Print dialog and make sure that under Color Matching

The very first thing to ask is, are you using an AirPrint driver for your device? If so, that's a big problem all on its own. They're convenient as heck to install, but are also crippled.

AirPrint, while easy, almost always lacks many features found in the full drivers. For instance, our Xerox VersaLink C405.

This is all I get with the AirPrint option. My only choice for color control is on or off. There's nothing under Media & Quality, or anywhere else. That doesn't cut it for color management. You get what you get without any color options for the user.

With the full drivers, I get this.

Under Color Matching, I can tell the OS to use ColorSync, and my custom profile for plain copy paper (or any other paper I've created a profile for).

Related to that under Xerox Features is the very necessary ability to tell the printer to not use any automatic color control. You must be able to disable all such auto junk to create or use custom profiles. If you can't turn all automatic color off, it can't work.

None of this is possible under AirPrint. Installing the full drivers directly from Xerox is the only way to get all of the options our printer can use.

If your printer drivers aren't the issue, then it may be where you have your custom profiles installed. I don't know why Apple changed this, but most apps will no longer recognize profiles within your own user account. They must be in the global /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.

The general point being, I can use my custom profiles in any app that have a print option. Preview, TextEdit, Safari, Photoshop, whatever else.

The Adobe apps go either way. But like all other apps, it must be able to see your profiles. Which means always place them in the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.

I'm sure you know this, but I'll be verbose anyway. Photoshop lets you choose Printer Manages Color, or Photoshop Manages Color. When you click Print with the first, then the standard print dialogue palette appears. Proceed as usual. For the latter, choose your custom profile, along with your other preferences, and click Print.

And forget the ColorSync Utility. There's nothing useful there. You can't set a default profile for devices as you can in Windows.

sfsAppleSupportCommunity wrote:

Long story short ...

I found that in order to use custom icc profiles correctly, one needs a software that allows selecting a custom icc profile in-App, like in Photoshop's print dialog; and

on top of that, one has to go to the MacOS's Print dialog and make sure that under Color Matching, "ColorSync" is selected and "Generic RGB profile" is selected too.

In the same MacOS printing dialog, under "Printer options", some printers might require "Color Correction" turned off also.

Hope this helps people ease frustration and save precious ink and paper.

See if there is anything here—

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