Coated FOGRA39.

Printers ask for “FOGRA39” constantly, and it causes confusion because FOGRA39 is not a profile. It is a characterisation data set: a measured description of what a particular printing condition does. Several ICC profiles are built from it, which is why you can be handed a job specified as FOGRA39 and still have a choice to make.

What you are probably being asked for

In practice a request for FOGRA39 means one of two files:

• ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc from ECI, which is the European default and the more common answer
• CoatedFOGRA39.icc, which ships with Adobe applications

Both are built on the same FOGRA39L characterisation and describe the same printing condition. They are not bit-identical, and there can be small differences in separation behaviour, but for most commercial work either satisfies the request.

If a printer has specified one by filename, use that one. If they said “FOGRA39” and nothing else, ISO Coated v2 is the safer default in Europe.

Where it sits now

FOGRA39 dates from the 2004 revision of ISO 12647-2 and has been superseded by FOGRA51, which underpins PSO Coated v3 and accounts for optically brightened paper. Superseded is not the same as obsolete: FOGRA39 remains the single most requested coated condition in European print, and a large amount of existing artwork and press calibration is built around it.

Using it in Print.App

Attach it per design template. Print.App converts RGB to CMYK through the assigned profile when the PDF is rendered, and soft proofs the same conversion in the browser so customers see it before ordering rather than on the proof.

How Print.App uses this profile

Print.App ships this profile built in, as CMYK-coated-fogra39. You assign it per design template in the designer, and every print file rendered from that template converts RGB to CMYK through it automatically. Nobody has to remember to do it, and your customers never see a colour setting.

The same profile drives soft proofing in the browser, so the customer approves the converted result before ordering rather than discovering it on the proof. There are 27 profiles built in, covering the ISO Coated, PSO, GRACoL, SWOP, FOGRA and Japan Color families.