1: What is the GRAcoL color profile and why use it?
GRAcoL stands for General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography. It's a standard color gamut - basically, a large grouping of colors that most sheetfed CMYK presses should be able to achieve. This of course includes lithography, but is often used in flexography as well. It has a smaller gamut range than some other color profiles to help keep colors as consistent as possible through multiple print runs on a majority of sheetfed presses.
2: How to install the correct GRAcoL color profile on your computer?
It should be as easy as downloading the supplied profile
GRACoL2006_Coated1v2.icc right-clicking the color profile on your computer then choosing “Install Profile”.
If it is not showing up on the initial attempt then restart your computer and try again. It should work then. You can check if it worked properly by following these
instructions Or you can start to export the document and follow the below steps to apply this color profile.
3: How to apply this color profile to documents in Adobe Illustrator?
3a) Once your file is created and you are ready to create a print-ready PDF start by selecting SAVE AS under the FILE menu. Rename if necessary, choose Acrobat PDF from the drop-down menu then save to a location of your choosing.
3b) On the next dialog box click the STANDARD drop down and select PDF/X-1a:2001 for the most compatibility with most printers.
3c) Now switch to the OUTPUT tab, click the DESTINATION drop down, and select the “GRACoL2006_coated1v2.icc” profile. Please note there should be two profiles named GRACoL. Coated GRAYCoL 2006 (ISO 12647-2:2994) is not the correct one. Using that profile will adjust colors to an unwanted color space causing undesirable results.
3d) Once the correct color profile is selected you then create a custom default color profile and save it for future use.