-----Adobe Photoshop is the single most important tool in the digital imaging toolbox. But even a complete set of professional tools in the hands of a novice will produce only novice results. Many do-it-yourselfers (and their mates) can attest to that!

-----Professional workflows come from a professional perspective. Habit number two of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Steven Covey) is “Begin with the end in mind.” Preparing images for print starts with an understanding of the printing process to be used.
------Color Management workflows include the use of ICC Profiles to correctly interpret photographic colors and tones into the appropriate dots necessary for accurate reproduction in a given printing process. BUT, they do NOT provide any guidelines for the initial preparation of an image. They only portend to transpose the image accurately into the tones that will reproduce the original material accurately.
------Do you see the subtle (as a brick) assumption here?

-----There is an assumption that these profiles will automatically correct for problems in tonality and color. How marvelous that would be if it were true. --Unfortunately, it is not!
-----An image that lacks shadow detail in RGB will lack that same shadow detail in the CMYK version. An image that contains a color shift will not be color corrected simply because it is handled by a color managed workflow.

-----There are a number of imaging issues that are not addressed by color management alone. Just a couple of these issues include: excessive resolution, image neutrality, lacking detail in either highlight and or shadow areas, sharpening (or the lack thereof). All of these (and more) issues need to be addressed prior to, and apart from, any profile conversion.
-----The main purpose of color management is to guarantee that the state and appearance of an image will be accurately conveyed from one device space to another. The issue addressed by color management is device independent color. Since every device (input, display, and output) maintains its own color gamut, it is necessary to compensate for these differences in the production chain.------A good workflow is one where images are optimized (working RGB color space,

gamut, range, high/low key compensation, resolution, sharpening, etc.) prior to transposition from one color gamut (device color space) to another. If these issues are NOT addressed prior to any profile conversion(s), images will simply transfer bad information accurately from one color gamut to another. Garbage in, garbage out.

-----ICC workflows are certainly a necessity in today’s production process, but nothing inherent within these workflows will compensate for the initial process of image optimization. The real production workflow includes the pre-ICC profile optimization of all images.
-----I am also a serious believer in an all-RGB file preparation workflow. If images are converted to CMYK (of any kind) prior to the generation of production PDFs, a very real possibility of improper color gamut mapping may occur. Different press/paper combinations require not only different color gamuts, but also quite different total ink requirements.
-----Good color workflows begin with a solid understanding of ink behaviors on various papers and presses. This is not a trivial matter. Important tonal and color reproduction issues are at risk.

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