ICC – International Color Consortium
An international standard for matching color from one imaging device to another.
These profiles exist to ensure consistent presentation between devices.
Example: the colors of an image on your display should look the same when printed out on a photo printer.
1 or more ICC profiles exist for most (if not all) displays, printers, scanners, cameras, iPhones, etc.
Example: my scanner has 3 – positive, negative (for film) and glossy; printers can even have profiles for different paper stocks.
One of the most common complaints I see from artists online is “my scanner/camera turned the color blah” or something to that equivalent.
This is most often caused by the scanner not having the correct color profile assigned to it.
Example: MS Windows does not automatically assign manufacturer ICC profiles to devices (see Windows Help and support “ICC” for the FAQ and How to)
Where do you get them?:
Most often they are automatically loaded by driver software (just not necessarily assigned).
If they aren’t already on your system they can usually be found online without too much hassle; just use the manufacturer, model number and “ICC profile” in the search term.
Additionally art and imaging software (Adobe, Corel, etc.) use and allow custom selection of ICC profiles.
