[Openicc] Print and monitor Color Pipeline

[Jon Cruz]

On Jan 27, 2011, at 8:51 AM, Chris Murphy wrote:

> I think RGB and CMYK are control signals, and should be abstracted away from users. I don't even like photographers dealing with RGB. It's unintuitive, clunky, and in color managed apps there's no correlation between actual RGB values and the ones displayed on screen anyway. So I'd prefer LCH based tools - or better JCH or IPT.
> 
> And so you can imagine how I feel about CMYK.

Although I can agree that far too many people focus on CMYK who should not, there are a lot of cases where more precise control is needed. Screening and droplet control might be a bit beyond what many need, but trapping, knockout, black text, etc. are often best left to the professional graphic designer. It is in trying to make back end systems "too smart" that we often get into trouble.

This also really comes into play when you go to print with spot inks involved. Whether solid spot inks, glossy overlay, etc. those using them often need more control. 

And to use the car analogy, although one might not need to know the voltage it takes for cylinders to fire, it *is* quite handy to have a tachometer on their dash. Sure, you could just have a governor on the engine to reduce problems, but seeing the proximity to the redline can be a better and more flexible solution.