Paste Profile Mismatch

[PhilipFFennessy]

Hi,

I have a number of photos on my system with different ICC profiles. My default working space is RGB 1998.

Today, I went to insert one Adobe RGB 1998 photo (.psd) with the Move tool into another .psd photo with a ECI-RGB.icc profile. Before doing this, PSE advised a Paste Profile Mismatch. I advised that I was OK about converting colors to a destination with a color profile that does not match my current working space. It worked OK but should I be concerned about this as I have so many image profiles?

All of my images are destined for print purposes in InDesign. I intend to use Richard Lynch's plug-ins for RGB / CMYK conversion as well as a host of other uses not ordunarily found in PSE as provided by his book 'The Hidden Power of PSE2'. However, I am concerned about the Edit>Color Settings>Optimize for Print setting, which I have ticked as I am not sure if this remains valid if I delete my Photoshop Elements Prefs file. What is the position here?

Finally, I did try to import an ECI-RGB.icc image into InDesign and got a CannotParse Error. This situation does not apply when I use other images with a similar profile. Should I be converting all of my images to RGB 1998 profile and, if so, how do you do this?
If this is the case, should I do the RGB / CMYK conversion after this step?

Thanks for any help.

Best regards,
Phil

[Conrad Torque]

Phil,

I would really just not bother with the profiles. You are looking to get a result you are going to control -- especially when doing a custom separation. Don't go letting some profile tell you what you want to see in the result. I am also fairly sure you will have trouble embedding profiles using the DCS files for CMYK.

This probably doesn't answer all your questions, but take a look at the color management suggestions in the book you were reading. Don't get too hung up on profiling for now. When you have your monitor calibrated, look at what happens on the screen, and compare that to actual printed output before making decisions about the success of profiling or conversion results. There are far too many variables here for someone to give the ultimate answer. If there was one, they'd just build it right into Elements -- but it isn't that easy. There was a time before profiles, and it is possible to get results without them. My humble opinion is that it is better to get them without first before trying to get them with.

That help?

Richard Lynch