[Openicc] Color management in gimp

[Maria, Marti]

Hi Lars,

I definitively agree on the need of OS-wide color management. That is a key idea, and despite what could seem, not much more complex than integrating color management on a single application. We need Gnome/KDE/X11 support instead of Gimp integration. CMM could be selectable, but at the end, which CMM is being used is not so important. The true need is a way apps could be made color-aware transparently. Then *all* graphical apps would be color-aware.

> Their next meeting is held in London, May 3 or 4 or 5. 
> I encourage you to attend. We need you there.

I shall be there. Looking forward the developer's conference in Scottsdale as well.

Regards,
Marti Maria.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lars Borg [mailto:borg at adobe.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 12:34 AM
To: Gettys, James; Maria, Marti
Cc: openicc at lists.freedesktop.org; Ann McCarthy
Subject: Re: [Openicc] Color management in gimp

Implementing color management as an application solution is not the best approach now. Such an approach was a necessity 10 years ago, when platforms provided no CM support. As a result, every color managed application was an island, with a unique culture and with few good bridges to other islands.

I encourage you to build a systems architecture where color management is inherent and mandatory in the platform, and not an optional, application-specific feature. Mac OS X has taken this approach. Longhorn seems to follow.

This means every color path in and out of the application should be tagged explicitly or implicitly with a color space, and the platform should convert as needed from the source or to the destination.

In such an architecture, some applications will be and can be color-ignorant. The platform can provide these applications with a consistent color space, such as sRGB, monitor RGB, or some other system default. Thus, in such an architecture, GIMP need not add CM, unless GIMP intends to support more than one color space.

(The Workflow Working Group of) ICC, chaired by Ann McCarthy, Lexmark, is currently working on defining cross-platform functional requirements and use cases for such an architecture. Their next meeting is held in London, May 3 or 4 or 5. 
I encourage you to attend. We need you there.

Lars Borg

At 10:59 AM -0500 4/2/05, Jim Gettys wrote:
>Yes, you are identifying what is missing...
>
>We need the infrastructure to store the information for input devices 
>(cameras, scanners, etc.), the monitor/flatpanels, and output devices 
>(printers, etc.) in a standard way and location...
>
>Then, in concert with lcms or equivalent, we will have a chance of 
>convincing application developers/toolkit developers to update their 
>applications/toolkits to support color management....
>
>Modularity arguments make it pretty clear the color management system 
>itself should be pluggable, etc., and one component of this larger 
>infrastructure....
>				- Jim
>
>On Sat, 2005-04-02 at 15:53 +0200, Maria, Marti wrote:
>> 
>>  Hi Paco,
>>
>>  >I wonder...
>>  >¿How can one program an efficient color management  > solution if 
>> cannot insert it in the visualization  > section of the aplication?
>>  >I think littleCMS as a plug-in is not a practical  > solution. It 
>> does not serves at all.
>>
>>  Please keep in mind lcms, as most CMM, is only a low-level engine. 
>>It can effectively apply color transforms to a raster data. But it has 
>>no access to devices like monitor, printer and so. It is up to the 
>>application software to use the CMM as a tool to get the correct color 
>>translation before sending data to the output devices.
>>
>>  For a "good" color management in Gimp, lcms should be integrated in 
>>the core program, not only as a plug-in. There is another program, 
>>Scribus, that does that in a pretty successful
>>way:
>>
>>  http://www.scribus.net/
>>
>>  Regards
>>  Marti Maria.
>>
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