
They're the same as ICM files and you can change their extension to either one. It's also worth noting that sometimes, color profiles can also be stored as ICC files (ICC comes from International Color Consortium). Why this seemingly odd name? ICM comes from Image Color Management, which is a shorter way of saying that it's Windows' component that handles color management.

When you're installing a new color profile, or driver if you wish, for your monitor, that's what you should have: an ICM file. The answer is this: in Windows, color profiles are stored in files that end with the ".ICM" extension. In this section's title, we also mentioned ICM files and you're probably wondering why. Therefore, you get the differences in color we mentioned earlier. People rarely install drivers for them and this translates into your monitor not using a correct color profile. That's why the only component you need to worry about is your monitor. Printers and scanners install their color profiles together with their official drivers. In order to make sure such differences occur less often and see the real colors used in an image, you need to install the color profiles for the devices that are working with colors on your computer. And because each of these devices has its own way of managing colors, without the correct color profiles, the image you view on your monitor will look very different from what you see when you print it. If the devices you use have correct color profiles associated with them, then you can be sure that the colors you see are as natural as possible.Ĭameras, monitors, printers, scanners and so on, are all image devices that we use every day. The color profiles communicate the color characteristics of the device you use, to the operating system. Therefore we will try to summarise the best we can:Ī color profile is a set of data which defines a device working with colors, and how this device displays colors.



