Disabling Photoshop’s RGB Color Management
These instructions are for Photoshop CS5 on Mac and Windows. Setting up
CS4 is very similar.
Step 1: Go to Edit → Color Settings and set the working space for RGB to
Monitor RGB.
Step 2: Open a document and go to Edit → Assign Profile, then set it to
Working RGB. This must be done for every single document you work on.
Step 3: Ensure View → Proof Colors is turned off.
Step 4: When saving files with Save for Web & Devices, ensure that Convert
to sRGB is turned off. If you’re saving a JPEG file, then also turn off Embed
Color Profile (you may want this turned on for certain photos, but chances
are you’ll want it off for interface elements and icons).
Difference Between “Assign Profile” and “Convert To
Profile”
Now would be a good time to mention the difference between Assign
Profile and Convert to Profile, so that you know which to use when.
Each Photoshop document contains a color profile that’s separate from the
actual color data stored for each pixel. Assign Profile simply changes the
profile in the document, without affecting any of the color data. It’s a non-
destructive action: you can assign a new color profile to your documents as
often as you like without doing any damage. Assigning a new profile may
change the way your document appears on screen, but the data contained
in the file will remain unaltered.