An output profile maps out-of-gamut colors to colors in the gamut of the output device. The output profile may also map in-gamut colors to different colors to preserve the relationships between all colors.

There are many ways to map colors, each of which can have different significant effects on output.

The ICC specification defines several ways of mapping colors, called a rendering intent. When you print using a profile, some applications allow you to select the rendering intent that is most appropriate for the images you are printing.

A profile contains data for the following rendering intents:

• Perceptual - Preserves tonal relationships in images for perceptually pleasing color. Often used for photographs, including scans and images from stock photography and digital camera images. Typically results in less saturated output than Saturation rendering when printing out-of-gamut colors.

  EFI uses the name Photographic for its implementation of the Perceptual rendering intent. Perceptual (Photographic) selects the Photographic rendering intent for an EFI-supplied profile or the Perceptual rendering intent for other profiles.

• Saturation - Creates saturated colors but does not match printed colors precisely to displayed colors. Often used for charts and graphs in presentations. Works well for in-gamut colors in images as well as out-of-gamut colors in presentation graphics.

  EFI uses the name Presentation for its implementation of the Saturation rendering intent. Saturation (Presentation) selects the Presentation rendering intent for an EFI-supplied profile or the Saturation rendering intent for other profiles.

• Relative Colorimetric - Attempts to provide an exact color match between source and destination. This rendering intent maps out-of-gamut colors to the nearest in-gamut color. It provides white-point transformation between the source and destination whitepoints. For example, the bluish white color (gray) of a monitor is replaced by paper white. Often used when color matching is important (for example, logo color), even at the expense of tonal relationships.

  Use Relative Colorimetric rather than Absolute Colorimetric intent if you prefer white colors in an image to print as paper white.

• Absolute Colorimetric - Is similar to Relative Colorimetric but provides no whitepoint transformation between the source and destination whitepoints. Whites in an image are reproduced as printed color (simulating the destination paper color) rather than replaced by paper white. Best used when you need exact colors, such as for proofing.