How to tell if PDF embeds color profile

<p>I used Photoshop's Automate/PDF Presentation feature to create a PDF with an embedded color profile. Before sending the PDF to the printing service (MagCloud), I want to verify that the profile is indeed embedded. Does anyone know how to do this? I've opened the PDF in Acrobat Pro version 8 (the only version I have), Adobe Reader, Mac Preview, and even dumped its metadata with ExifTool, but nowhere do I see any indication of an embedded profile.</p>

<p>View->Tools->Print Production, then Output Preview. This should show you what's embedded, but you can simulate other models as well. You can run the Pre-flight panel as well to check your settings.</p>

<p>Use the Preflight tools. There's "List objects using ICC Profiles" which if you invoke, will provide a dropdown list of each page and indicate the ICC Profiles any object. </p>

<p>Rich: I didn't see any indication of what's embedded. Only the opportunity to choose a Simulation Profile.</p>

<p>Andrew: I see an option for "List objects using ICC/Lab/calibrated color" but not "List objects using ICC Profiles". Perhaps that feature was added after Acrobat Version 8? I did see an option to list all page objects, and when I do that I get what's in the photo. I'm wondering if the two things I circled are what I'm looking for, especially the second.</p><div></div>

<p>You found the right report. You can then view individual pages and such to see what's embedded per 'object'. Many dropdown menu items to inspect depending on what you're looking for. <br>

I'm running version 11. </p>

<p>Thanks so much, Andrew. What I don't know, and maybe won't be able to find out, is whether MagCloud uses the embedded profile for the PDF as a whole, or the profiles embedded in the individual images in the PDF (which started out as distinct JPEG files), or both. They say that the PDF has to have an embedded profile for correct color conversion to CMYK.</p>

<p>My own app, ProofSheet, prints pages from JPEGs using Mac OS X APIs, and then the standard print dialog produces the PDF. Whether that PDF contains an embedded profile isn't an API option, nor is it an option on the print dialog. So, I then produced a second PDF by passing the first one through PhotoShop (the one in the illustration, above), and sent them both to be printed. I'll see in a week or so whether there is any difference between them.</p>

<p>A third option is to generate a PDF from the Lightroom Book module, but it's very limited in sizes, and they don't quite match what MagCloud offers. I'm trying that now.</p>

<p>I am not at all sure about the color profile part, but metadata is a different story. I am referring to IPTC data.<br>

I don't have a PDF writer so I copied an image that I knew had metadata onto a WORD 2010 file. I then saved that image onto my desktop. This second copy had metadata in it which Bridge found immediately.<br>

<br />Then I saved that document as a PDF file. I copied the image from the PDF file into another word file, then saved that as a third copy. The image saved from the PDF file did NOT have IPTC metadata attached. <br>

<br />What I can say from this is that if you copy an image with IPTC metadata into a PDF file, there is a high probability that the metadata will be removed. I suspect the entire header of the JPEG file is removed by Adobe. That seems kind of strange. Why would they do that?<br>

<br />I did not answer your question directly, but I added a nuance. Good question.</p>

<p>PDF may contain ICC color profile(s). Those profiles have to be specifically associated with objects also in the PDF to be used. A profile can be set as the default for any object in the document depending on device dependency. The objects (images, graphics) may have their own embedded profiles too. </p>