However, if you work with photos, and need a specific color profile for paper for a printer, for example, you’ll be able to install these files. These default profiles, with odd names, such as sRGB IEC61966-2.1, are specially designed for specific uses you can safely ignore them. Go to System Preferences > Displays, then click the Color tab, and you’ll see a list. Your Mac can store lots of color profiles, and you’ll find that it already has a handful. Color ProfilesĬolor profiles are settings files that tell your Mac how to adjust the color and contrast of its display. It’s easy to color calibrate your Mac’s display, and you can do so quickly by eye, or you can use additional hardware to get your colors exactly right. It does this by changing the intensity of the main colors - red, blue, and green - and setting the white point, or the neutral white color that you see when, say, you open a new document in a word processor.
The calibration process tweaks a number of settings to get the colors and contrast on your Mac as accurate as possible. However, if you work with photos or videos, or even if you like to watch movies in the best possible conditions, color calibrating your display is essential. If you only use your Mac for browsing the Web, sending and receiving email, and working in a word processor, it’s probably not all that important for it to display accurate colors. How To How to Color Calibrate Your Mac’s Display