Color Management

Color Profile and Soft Proofing

It is your full responsibility to ensure that the colors used in your file(s) are what you would like to be printed so it is necessary that you review your edited images with our printer profile and calibrated monitor to verify approximate desired color accuracy and consistency.

You should calibrate your monitor regularly to avoid any color differences. Keep in mind that you can see a close approximation of what the printed page will look like by following these steps, however you can't literally make a print match what you see on your monitor exactly as the CMYK printing space is much different than the RGB color space of your images.

By following these steps, however, you can make your Photoshop preview what the printed book will look like so you can make any adjustments to the files if needed before sending them. We find the soft proofing process here usually provides about 95% accurate matching:

  • 1. Download Printer Profile

    First you have to download our special AsukaBook Printer Profile (ICC Color Profile).

    DOWNLOAD HERE

  • 2. Install the Printer Profile

    Windows:

    Right-click the profile and select Install Profile. Alternatively, copy the profile into the WINDOWS/system32/spool/drivers/color folder (for Windows XP, Vista, 7) or the WINNT/system32/spool/drivers/color folder (for Windows 2000)

    Mac:

    Copy the profile into the /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended folder. Alternatively, copy profiles into the /Users/username/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.

  • 3. Soft Proofing in Photoshop
    Please follow the steps below to soft proof your layouts. You can save this setup so that each spread you design may be soft proofed using AsukaBook's printer profile. Generally when proofing, it should be very close to your original image; there should be limited noticeable change when you turn the profile on. Having a properly profiled monitor is key to a good color match.

    This process is for soft proofing your images on screen only. DO NOT SAVE YOUR FILES WITH THE SOFT PROOF SETTING APPLIED. In other words, when saving the files, simply keep them in sRGB or Adobe RGB color spaces.

    1. Open Photoshop and go to View > Proof Setup
    2. Select Custom
    3. In the Proof Setup window choose "ask_fvo_a.icc" from the Profile menu
    4. Choose "Perceptual" from the Intent menu
    5. Turn "Use Black Point Compensation" on.
    6. Leave the other options off

    While turning the "Preview" option on and off, you may see slight color changes as your monitor is now simulating what our printing device is capable of reproducing. Generally, this change is very slight, and acceptable. If this is the case, you can proceed with sending your page layouts to AsukaBook without modification.

    If the change is unacceptable, you can make color adjustments to your layouts, with the Preview still on, to compensate for what you are seeing on the screen.

  • 4. Soft Proofing in Lightroom
    If you like to use Adobe Lightroom for Softproofing your images we suggest to use the following plug-in: Lightroom Plugin (available for Lightroom v2-4). Lightroom 4 supports soft proofing but we can not guarantee the quality of the built-in feature so far.
  • 5. Download Calibration Flyer
    You can download (here) the digital file that matches the image on the flyer included in your Welcome to AsukaBook Packet. All you need to do is to load the digital file into Photoshop, use the proof preview method mentioned above, and you should see an approximation to what will be printed. This is a good indication of your monitor calibration.

    If you do not have the printed flyer, contact our Customer Care to to request one be mailed to you: europe@asukabook.com

    DOWNLOAD HERE

More Information
How To Videos
Calibration