These profiles are necessary as they can show us the final image outcome on our screen and compare between different profiles. With out knowing we can easily and instantaneously lose colour quality from photographs we import, and the quality lost can be drastic. Not to mention time and money wasted.
To further explain what ICC profiles are, they can give information of the pixels within digital photographic files. Information such as; the very darkest to the very lightest tones the file can hold.
The Gamut (range of colours) that the file is capable of showing. The relationship between these colours and tones as well as the distribution. All by 3 dimensionalizing colour information. The bellow images shows two 3D Gamuts (the range of potential colour a system can produce). The smaller one represents the standard sRGB profile and the larger transparent one represents the adobe RGB profile. (note- transparent as it is not selected).
Before comparing first notice the shape of these spectrums of colour. At each corner we see the point of red, green and blue. We can clearly see the colours fade into each other by becoming different tones. The 3D area is representative of the information of colour the profile has. So what if there is more information? Then of course the 3D area becomes larger and therefor represents even more colour. The Adobe RGB is a much richer profile as can be seen when compared (top photo). When the Adobe RGB is selected you can see the full colour of information is has, as we can see bellow. Profiles can also describe the capabilities of monitors, scanners, cammeras and also printers. aswell as any device that captures, displays or outputs colour can be described by a profile.
The bellow image shows a 2D Gamut representing and comparing other ICC profiles. The largest shape of colour represents the colour the human eye can see. The various coloured triangles represent the corresponding (by colour) profiles.
