Color Management setup

This article is part of the Tips & Tricks series.

Installation • Usage • PDF issues • Other

These are practical notes to issue a PDF for printer, using RGB images, and having to issue a CMYK PDF.

Preambule

Color Management deals with how the color are managed both in the PDF output files AND in the input image files.

Setup is spread in 3 places :

• Scribus preferences and document setup
• Color pane in the export to PDF dialog
• little "color management" button in status bar

Scribus and Document Setup

These are the preferences for the OUTPUT file.

Color pane in the export to PDF dialog

First option is to specify the output type : either RGB (web) or CMYK (printer)

Then the "united colors" and "images" title options are to specify how to read images : input setup.

little color management button in statusbar

This controls all ! Whenever it is not pushed, no CM will occur.

PDF output

PDF exists in many flavors : 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, X-3 (and X-1 available in scribus 1.5 svn).

Some PDF versions only accept CMYK image files like X1, some other versions accept mixes of RGB and CMYK, like X3.

When creating a pdf that only accepts CMYK, scribus converts the RGB image into CMYK, using the provided color profile.