ICC Color Profiles

The 27 ICC color profiles built into Print.App, their identifiers, and which printing condition each one describes. Assign one per design template to control RGB to CMYK conversion in the final PDF.

Print.App ships 27 ICC color profiles. Each one describes a specific combination of press, ink and paper, and the profile you assign to a design template is what governs how RGB artwork is converted to CMYK in the final PDF.

You set this per design template, not globally, in the Print.App Designer. That means a business card on premium coated stock and a banner on vinyl can convert through completely different profiles from the same store.

Not sure which profile a job needs, or looking for the official download and full specifications? See the CMYK ICC profile reference on print.app, which covers what each standard targets, ink limits, and where to get the files. This page is the configuration reference: the identifiers below are what you select in the Designer.

Choosing one

Two questions decide it, and neither is about software:

1. Where is the job printing? Europe generally means the ECI and FOGRA profiles, North America means GRACoL or SWOP, Japan means the Japan Color set.
2. On what paper? Coated and uncoated stock behave very differently. Uncoated absorbs ink, gains dot substantially and reaches a smaller gamut, so it needs its own profile rather than a coated one with adjustments.

If your print provider has named a profile, use the one they named. Their answer beats every general rule.

Available profiles

Profile	Description
CMYK	Generic CMYK conversion. A safe fallback when no printing condition is known, but prefer a specific profile whenever you have one.
CMYK-coated-fogra27	Coated stock, Europe. The older FOGRA27 characterisation, superseded by FOGRA39. Use only when a printer asks for it by name.
CMYK-coated-fogra39	Coated stock, Europe. FOGRA39 characterisation, 330% ink limit. The most widely requested European coated condition.
CMYK-coated-gracol2006	Premium coated grade 1, North American sheetfed offset. GRACoL 2006, 340% ink limit. Wider gamut than SWOP for commercial sheetfed work.
CMYK-eci-iso-coated-v2-300	ISO Coated v2 limited to 300% total ink. For web offset, faster presses, or stock that will not take 330%.
CMYK-eci-iso-coated-v2-eci	ISO Coated v2 at 330% total ink. The European default for coated sheetfed offset.
CMYK-eci-iso-uncoated-yellowish	Uncoated offset on yellowish or natural-white stock, Europe. Use instead of the standard uncoated profile when the paper is visibly warm.
CMYK-eci-pso-coated-300-npscreen-iso12647	Coated stock with non-periodic (stochastic) screening, limited to 300% ink. For FM screening workflows.
CMYK-eci-pso-coated-npscreen-iso12647	Coated stock with non-periodic (stochastic) screening, standard ink limit.
CMYK-eci-pso-lwc-improved	Lightweight coated, improved grade, European web offset. Catalogues, magazines and inserts.
CMYK-eci-pso-lwc-standard	Lightweight coated, standard grade. A lower specification than LWC Improved, with a correspondingly smaller gamut.
CMYK-eci-pso-mfc-paper	Machine-finished coated publication stock, European web offset.
CMYK-eci-pso-snp-paper	Standard newsprint, Europe. Very high dot gain and a small gamut.
CMYK-eci-pso-uncoated-iso12647	Uncoated white offset stock, Europe. FOGRA47, 300% ink limit. The correct choice for letterheads and uncoated cards.
CMYK-eci-pso-uncoated-npscreen-iso12647	Uncoated stock with non-periodic (stochastic) screening.
CMYK-eci-sc-paper	Supercalendered publication paper, European web offset. Smoother than newsprint, still uncoated.
CMYK-japan-200-newspaper	Japanese newsprint. High dot gain, low ink limit.
CMYK-japan-2001-coated	Japan Color 2001 Coated, sheetfed offset. 350% ink limit, notably higher than European or North American coated profiles.
CMYK-japan-2001-uncoated	Japan Color 2001 Uncoated, for uncoated stock in Japan.
CMYK-japan-2003-web-coated	Japan Color 2003 for coated web offset.
CMYK-japan-web-coated	Japanese web offset on coated publication stock.
CMYK-uncoated-fogra29	Uncoated offset, Europe, FOGRA29 characterisation.
CMYK-us-web-coated-swop	U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2, publication web offset, 300% ink limit. Adobe’s default CMYK space, which is why it is often selected by accident.
CMYK-us-web-uncoated	Uncoated web offset, North America.
CMYK-web-coated-fogra28	Coated web offset, Europe, FOGRA28 characterisation.
CMYK-web-coated-swop-2006-g3	SWOP 2006 grade 3 publication stock, North American web offset. A better grade than grade 5.
CMYK-web-coated-swop-2006-g5	SWOP 2006 grade 5 publication stock, North American web offset. Lighter, more absorbent stock.

Ink limits vary from 300% to 350% across these profiles. Separating a file for one condition and printing it on a press expecting another is a common cause of slow drying, set-off and marking in finishing. Convert for the press that is actually running the job.

We use LittleCMS at runtime to perform the RGB to CMYK conversion in the final PDF file, passing it the profile you selected. The same profile drives soft proofing in the browser, so customers see the converted result before they order. See Color Proofing for how that appears to them.