The present invention provides for initializing a color appearance model (CAM) for use in a color management system (CMS), the CMS for performing an imaging task. Initialization parameters for the CAM are determined. The initialization parameters are based on information from a device profile and/or a viewing condition profile. The imaging task determines how the information from the device profile and/or the viewing condition profile is to be used for the initialization parameters. The CAM is initialized using the determined initialization parameters. The initialization parameters for the CAM are likely to result in more accurate transformation of color image data between a source device and a destination device.