Adobe Gamma – CS3 Installation

This is more of an informational post than a question. Hopefully one of the Mods will add this to the FAQs.

As many of you probably already know when you do a clean install of CS3 on Windows XP or Vista you can’t find Adobe Gamma in the Control Panel. I did a web search and most of the postings (including some in the Adobe Forums) say that Adobe Gamma is no longer supplied with CS3. This isn’t true. It just isn’t installed as a control panel. Many of these posts also suggest extracting Adobe Gamma from CS2 (or older) Installation CDs or reinstalling CS2. This isn’t necessary (not to mention impossible if you just bought the suite for the first time). The people at “chadandtoddcast.com” (never heard of them before today) have a podcast that explains how to install the Adobe Gamma control panel (link below). IT WAS COPIED to your hard drive during the original CS3 install BUT NOT INSTALLED.

If you don’t want to or can’t wait for the video to download what follows is my outline of the procedure plus some additional notes based on issues I ran into that are not covered in the video. These instructions do NOT cover the actual use of Adobe Gamma. Also, as I am not yet running Vista these instructions are for Windows XP (they will probably still work for Vista). And last of all, use these instructions at your own risk. While I have tried to provide accurate and thorough notes I do NOT guarantee that these procedures cover every scenario or are free of errors (I have gone through all the steps and everything seems to work out). If any errors are found please feel free to post corrections.

—–BASIC PROCEDURE—–
Link to Podcast(MP4):
<http://allthingsadobe.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=230489> Their Site:
<http://www.chadandtoddcast.com>

1. Navigate to the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Control Panels

2. “Copy” the file “Adobe Gamma.cpl”

3. Navigate to this folder:
C:\WINDOWS\system32

4. “Paste” the “Adobe Gamma.cpl” file into the system32 folder.

5. Launch the Windows Control Panel: Start Button -> Control Panel (Choose “Classic View” if not already set) you should see Adobe Gamma listed as an available control panel.

6. Use Adobe Gamma as you normally would to create a custom profile.

—–MY NOTES—–
After creating my calibrated profile with Adobe Gamma I restarted and discovered that the old profile was still being used. If this happens to you or you just want to be sure of which profile is loading then follow the additional steps below.

1. After you finish with Adobe Gamma restart your computer.

2. When you’ve successfully logged back into your computer right click on your Desktop (background).

3. In the menu that appears click “Properties”

4. In the “Display Properties” window click the “Settings” tab.

5. In Settings look for and click the “Advanced” button (lower right corner).

6. In the window that pops up click on the “Color Management” tab.

7. Look at the list of profiles. Is the color profile you created listed? If it is then you should be good to go. You may also want to check after a shutdown (it kept trying to revert to the old settings on my computer). If it isn’t right or there is more than one profile then continue with the appropriate steps below.