where are my profiles
where can I find the ICC profiles on my computer?
mac:
In Apple's macOS the ICC profiles are in various places, but if we want any logged-in user to have access to them, we put them in the main HDname/Library/Colorsync/Profiles folder. This is where the OSX system and many installed applications put profiles. From OSX 10.15 Catalina onwards it may not be possible for a user to modify that folder (e.g. to add custom profiles).
ICC profiles also appear in the
HDname/users/"your-username"/Library/Colorsync/Profiles folder.
[also referred to as: ~/Library/Colorsync/Profiles]
Putting them there has the advantage of backing them up whenever the user's home folder is archived so I favour that location. Screen calibration applications like basICColor Display often place profiles into this user folder. If you are adding your own printer profiles etc. and you find the folder is not present, it's OK to add it, just be sure to get the naming right - you may need to be logged in as ADMIN to enable those actions.
On later versions of Mac OSX, "your-username"/Library is a hidden folder. It's easy to get to though, just hold down the Alt key (near your keyboard spacebar) and then mouse down on the "Go" menu item (up near the Apple logo, top left of your screen). Now you'll see a contextual menu list which includes "Library", just highlight it and release the mouse and the "your-username"/Library" folder will open in a finder window.
For recent versions of Photoshop on Mac, Adobe's own profiles are placed in the HDname/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles folder.
Note that some more commonly used ones are inside that folder in the HDname/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended folder, those appear higher in the pulldown lists in Adobe apps.
windows:
Windows puts the profiles into different folders depending upon the Windows OS version.
7 and later: Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color
XP and later: Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color
2000+ME: WinNT\system\spool\drivers\color
some programs incorrectly installed profiles to Win NT\System32\Color on Windows 2000, if there are any profile location problems it can be advantageous to duplicate profiles to both that folder and the one listed above.
older systems:
mac up to OS 9.x Colorsync Profiles folder inside the System folder.
windows NT4: WinNT\System32\Color
windows 95-98: Windows\System\Color
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