Colour profiles are the invisible instructions that tell a printer how to reproduce colours accurately. Using the wrong profile — or no profile at all — can result in colours that look nothing like your design.
What is an ICC Colour Profile?
An ICC profile is a standardised file that describes the colour characteristics of a device or printing process. When embedded in a PDF, it tells the printer exactly how to interpret the colour values in the file.
Common Print ICC Profiles
- ISO Coated v2 (ECI) — most common for European offset printing on coated paper
- ISO Coated v2 300% (ECI) — version limiting total ink coverage to 300%
- ISO Uncoated — for uncoated paper
- FOGRA39 — widely used characterisation data for European coated printing
- GRACoL 2006 — US commercial offset printing standard
- SWOP — US publication printing
How to Assign or Embed a Profile
In Photoshop: Edit → Assign Profile (to change without converting colours) or Edit → Convert to Profile (to convert colour values). In Illustrator and InDesign, the colour profile is set in Document Colour Settings or during PDF export.
Automatic Profile Conversion
If you need to change the ICC profile of an existing PDF, PrintConvert247 handles this automatically. You can specify the target profile and the tool converts the colour values accordingly.
Convert colour profiles in your PDF automatically
Upload your file and select the target ICC profile. PrintConvert247 handles the rest.
Change colour profile →Always Verify After Conversion
After changing a colour profile, check the result with PrintReady247 to confirm the correct profile is embedded and no colour issues remain.