[Openicc] profile-configuration, application, CUPS, Ghostscript, Gutenprint

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Tue, 19 Apr 2005, Hal V Engel wrote:
>>
>> This is correct, however IMHO Gutenprint doesn't need to know this
>> information.  It will get one of 4 colorspaces (W, RGB, K, or CMYK)
>> and can assume that W and RGB are sRGB, and K and CMYK are linear
>> CMYK which can be profiled with the transform happening in the app
>> or RIP.
>
> I am not sure why Gutenprint would need to make any assumptions about the
> color space of the raster image it is being handed.  Shouldn't Gutenprint be
> getting the raster image in a printer model specific or custom device
> specific color space rather than a generic color space like sRGB?  If
> Gutenprint gets the document in the sRGB color space (the same is true for
> any non-model/device specific color space such as linear CMYK) then it must
> apply another color space transformation from sRGB to the device color space.

The ideal scenario from the user's perspective is that he can store 
and manipulate the image in a color space which best supports the 
original gammut, and provides the best results for image processing, 
or has otherwise been decreed to be the working space for the 
organization.  So if the user decides that Bruce Lindbloom's Beta RGB 
space ("http://www.brucelindbloom.com/index.html?BetaRGB.html") is the 
best fit for his data, then the data can be worked with entirely in 
that space.  This task is easier if the display is color managed so 
that the image may be viewed without permanently converting it to the 
display's colorspace.

If the user decides to send output to a particular device, he should 
be able to preview (the best his monitor can show) what the image 
will look like when sent to that device.  The user could decide to 
convert the image to the output device's colorspace in order to better 
fine-tune the results (but lose the quality of the original) or he 
could trust that the printing subsystem will do its job properly, and 
send the image to the printing subsystem in its original working 
colorspace.  The printing subsystem will then be responsible for doing 
any translations to the printer's colorspace.

If the user is not (or can not) be aware of the final output 
colorspace, then he can deliver the image in a colorspace which best 
supports the image, and the final color reproduction system can do 
its best to reproduce it.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/