Color profile not appearing in AffinityPublisher2

[SweetsopDesigns]

Greetings.  I have uploaded a color profile to my computer, but it is not showing in the drop down menu when I try to print in Affinity Publisher 2.  What do I need to do to upload (or whatever step I need to take) the color profile in to the program? Thank you.  New user here and appreciate the support.

[MikeTO]

Hi @SweetsopDesigns and welcome to the forums.

Where did you place the colour profile and which one was it? Below are installation instructions for colour profiles. You can also Use the Import ICC Profile feature in the Photo persona but the below instructions are better because the profile will be available to all applications on your computer.

To install a colour profile on macOS:

Quit Publisher before installing a colour profile because it checks for profiles when it is started.

1. Copy the .icc file(s) to /users/<username>/Library/ColorSync/Profiles. The default colour profiles are stored in a similar folder for all users of your computer so this folder will be empty if you haven’t previously installed a colour profile.

2. Restart Publisher.

[walt.farrell]

Also, what color format (RGB, CMYK) is your document, and what color format (RGB, CMYK) is the ICC profile?

[SweetsopDesigns]

Thanks @MikeTO and @walt.farrell! All I needed to do was Restart Publisher!  I should have thought of that.  Appreciate the help.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[MikeTO]

Yes, I did mean /users/<username>/Library/ColorSync/Profiles. I just confirmed the folder exists in another macOS account so I'm unsure why you haven't been able to find it. I did not create the folder and you'll find the same instructions across the internet. You can install profiles into both the system and user folders.

I just tested installing a colour profile (https://www.color.org/registry/PSOcoated_v3.xalter) into this folder and then restarted Publisher and the new profile appeared.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Dan C]

7 hours ago, lacerto said:

the latest 2.x versions now DO correctly recognize common system location at /Library/ColorSync/Profiles, which they formerly did not, which made it necessary to use user AND application version specific application locations for color profiles

I am not certain of this and perhaps an Apple representative may be able to confirm for you, but I understand that starting with macOS Big Sur, Apple changed how ColorSync profiles were handled.

Previous to this macOS release, the Affinity apps were able to read from ~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/ and this update caused profile to no longer be correctly read from there in Affinity V1 (and other creative apps, as searching online for any variation of 'big sur color profiles' will show), which is outlined in the below FAQ from the time:

I understand we've since changed how profiles are loaded in Affinity to be able to use either the user specific, or system common ColorSync folders though we always recommend the system common folder to ensure the profile is always available.

6 hours ago, lacerto said:

Do you really mean user specific location? On my system (macOS Sonoma 14.5) I do not have OS created sub folder for ColorSync for my user account

Again I cannot say with 100% accuracy, but I believe that if you were using these user specific folders previous to Big Sur, they would be carried forward during the upgrade / would be restored from TimeMachine backups.
If you didn't use these locations previous to Big Sur, or have since formatted your Mac etc, then I believe these folders are no longer created (I assume to try and minimise user confusion between the 3+ (!) locations these profiles could be stored).

I think that Apple want the system common folder to be used, and therefore don't automatically create the user one wherever possible - however I may be mixing related issues here as I'm not privy to Apple's coding changes and therefore the above is simply my best guess!

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[SweetsopDesigns]

Thanks all. I was able to solve the challenge by simply restarting Publisher. I appreciate your help.