Default Color Settings for Class

Topics Covered in This Photoshop Tutorial:

Color Management Setup

Exercise Overview

Color management is the backbone of professional digital imaging—it determines how Photoshop displays colors on your screen and how accurately they translate to print. Without proper color settings, your carefully crafted edits may appear dramatically different when viewed on other displays or printed. While we'll dive deep into customizing these settings for your specific workflow later in this course, establishing the correct foundation now is crucial for completing the exercises ahead with predictable, consistent results.

1. Launch Photoshop.

   NOTE: This tutorial has been tested with Photoshop CC 2018 and remains compatible with current versions through 2026, including the latest Creative Cloud releases.

2. Navigate to Edit > Color Settings to access Photoshop's color management controls.

3. From the Settings dropdown menu at the top, select North America Prepress 2. This preset provides an industry-standard foundation optimized for professional print workflows.

4. While most settings will automatically configure correctly, you'll need to modify three critical checkboxes in the Color Management Policies section. Uncheck these boxes to prevent disruptive dialog warnings during our exercises, ensuring your configuration matches the reference shown below:

   

5. Click OK to apply your changes and complete the setup.

   NOTE: These settings serve as our training baseline. In professional practice, optimal color management varies significantly based on your output requirements, client specifications, and industry standards. As you progress through this course, you'll learn to customize these settings for maximum accuracy in your specific workflow.

Monitor Calibration

Even with perfect color settings in Photoshop, an uncalibrated monitor undermines every color decision you make. Visual calibration using software alone—relying on your eyes to adjust colors—is notoriously unreliable and often produces results worse than your monitor's factory defaults. What looks "correct" to your eyes may be significantly skewed, leading to prints that bear little resemblance to your screen display.

Professional colorists and photographers rely on hardware calibration for a reason: it eliminates human perception variables and provides objective, measurable accuracy. A quality spectrophotometer or colorimeter measures your display's actual color output and creates a custom profile that corrects for its specific characteristics. Leading manufacturers like X-Rite, Datacolor, and Calibrite offer reliable calibration solutions ranging from $150 to $500, with entry-level models providing dramatically better results than visual methods.

1. Hardware calibrators follow a standardized workflow that typically includes:

   • Installing the manufacturer's calibration software and drivers
   • Connecting the USB calibration device to your computer
   • Launching the calibration software and following guided setup prompts
   • Allowing the device to measure your display's color output automatically
   • Saving the generated color profile, which your system will apply automatically

2. Schedule regular recalibration every 2-4 weeks for critical color work, as display characteristics drift over time. Complete your initial calibration before beginning the practical exercises in this workbook to ensure consistent, predictable results.