[CREATE] Open Colour Standard(s) and LGM

[Doug Schepers]

Hi, Christoph-

Christoph Schäfer wrote (on 11/10/09 11:39 PM):
>
> Just thinking aloud as a preparation or future discussions with the colour
> company: Does anyone think that a model like ODF/OASIS would be the right
> framework for an open colour standard?  It would allow for input from
> everyone: software projects/companies, commercial printers, ink vendors and
> whoever may be interested.
>
> Also, so far we are only talking about an open colour standard for CMYK
> printing. There are other areas that need to be covered as well, like spot
> colours, perhaps a new set of web colours (w3c?), colours for RGB/PDF/X-3+
> print workflows, colours for Office software (OASIS?),
> Hexa-/Septa-/Octachrome etc., and some of these definitely need
> vendor/manufacturer participation.
>
> Anyway, these were just some thoughts, and having an industry partner to
> discuss the first steps is definitely a good start.


Without trying to be too W3C-centric... what about bringing this to W3C?

Setting up a new standards body just for this may involve more overhead 
than you realize, and may not have the reach or credibility you want to 
make an impact on industry.  W3C already has the infrastructure in place 
for public participation and Royalty-Free license obligations, many 
members with print interests, and the neutrality and visibility to 
promote such an effort.

We also have a spec in progress that deals with color management [1][2], 
which would seem to be a good match.  It would also be good to have a 
treatment of some of these color issues in CSS, SVG, and XSL-FO specs.

Disclosure: I'm the W3C Team Contact for the SVG and WebApps working 
groups.  I'm also a new member of OASIS, as a participant in the ODF TC 
and liaison to the SVG WG, in an attempt to make SVG a first-class 
citizen of ODF.

I'd be happy to bring this up with the ODF TC to get more feedback, 
though right now they are focused on finishing ODF 1.2... future work 
will start in earnest next year, I think.  I'm not the right person to 
advocate for this, but I can help coordinate efforts (it would be one of 
the few times in my life that I'd be color-coordinated ^_^ ).

If you're interested in talking more about these possibilities before 
LGM, get in touch with me (or Chris or Liam) offlist.


[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/SVGColor12/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/SVGColorPrimer12/

Regards-
-Doug