Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

Chapter 7: Basic Image Retouching 183

Controlling the Colors

You See

NOTE Elements 5, like its predecessor Elements 4, automatically opens files tagged with a color

space other than the one you’re working in without letting you know what it’s just done. (Except

when you open a file in a color space that Elements can’t handle at all, like CMYK. In that case, Ele-

ments offers to convert it to a mode you can use.) So, if you have an Adobe RGB file and you’re

working in “Always Optimize for Computer Screens,” Elements doesn’t warn you about the profile

mismatch the way early versions did—it just opens the file.

So what’s your best option? Once again, if everything is looking good, leave it

alone. Otherwise, for general use, you’re probably best off starting with No Color

Management. Then try the others if that doesn’t work well for you.

If you choose one of the other three options, when you save your file, Elements

attempts to embed the file with a tag, or information about the file’s color space—

either Adobe RGB or sRGB. (Incidentally, this tag isn’t related to the Organizer

tags that you read about in Chapter 2.) If you don’t want a color tag—also known

Figure 7-5:

If you select the “Allow Me to

Choose” option for color

management, you see the

Missing Profile dialog box each

time you open a previously

untagged image. Here’s where

you can decide whether or not

to tag your file and how to tag

it. (See page ...