Configuring image processing profiles

02. June 2026

Table of Contents

What are processing profiles?

Fotoware uses processing profiles to apply image processing or third-party processing to files when a user requests a download or sends images to a workflow (action). They can also be used in the FotoWeb Desktop Extension for Adobe InDesign to process a file directly before placing it in the layout.

Fotoware includes built-in mechanisms for changing image file formats, resizing images, color conversion with ICC profiles, watermarking, and sharpening. In addition, processing profiles can be used to deliver files to a third-party system for processing in any way before returning them applies only to FotoWeb.

Note

Most of the processing profile functionality described below only applies to processing image file formats. Fotoware processing profiles can store images in these output formats: TIF, TIF with JPEG compression, JPEG, EPS, JPEG (with TIF preview), and PNG 8-bit.
For non-image files, users can only apply processing profiles configured for external processing. If a profile that involves external processing and image operations (color space, resizing, and so on) has been assigned to an archive and configured to apply to all download operations, image processing will be skipped for non-image files.
When a processing profile set (a collection of processing profiles from which the user can choose) is assigned to an archive, a user can only choose from profiles that involve downloading the original asset or external processing for non-image formats.

Learn how to assign a processing profile you created to an archive.

Creating a processing profile

From the Tools menu (cogwheel icon), go to Site Configuration > Workflows > Processing Profiles.
Select Add processing profile.
On the General tab, enter a name for the processing profile and, optionally, enter a description.

General settings

Open the File format tab.
Select the output format for the processed file from the File format dropdown list.
To change the color space, select a value from the Color space dropdown list. You can also select values from the Rendering intent and ICC profile dropdown lists, as necessary.
Use the ... button next to the ICC profile field to select a profile or to upload a profile from the local computer to the server.
If you select CMYK as the color space, you can turn on the Embed ICC profile toggle to embed the ICC profile in the output file (this toggle cannot be used with the other color space options). If the file has an embedded ICC profile before processing, it will be used as the input profile.

File format and color space

Open the Size tab.
Here, you can set image resizing options. You can choose not to change the output size, resample the image, or stamp the file with a resolution or size without altering image data.

Image size

Open the Watermark tab to add a watermark to all files before they are delivered to the client.
To add custom watermarks to the list, copy them to the Watermarks folder in the Server Settings folder.
Tip: When creating a watermark, you can achieve transparency by ensuring that the areas have a color value of 128 in the R, G, and B channels.

Watermarking

Open the Sharpening tab.
Turn on the Apply Unsharp Mask toggle to add an unsharp mask to the pictures.
Adjust the Amount, Radius, and Threshold settings as required. If you are unsure of the optimal values, try using the default settings first.

Sharpening

Select Save.

Assigning the processing profile or profile set to an archive

After completing the configuration of processing profiles and optionally adding them to a set, you can assign them to an archive.