[Openicc] Printing Plans GhostScript / sRGB / ICC

[Chris Murphy]

Let me see if I can make sense of this. These sorts of options are like f'n razor blades in a machine gun to end users. The only purpose it can serve is to make the current situation worse, if it were actually touched by a user. So I think it needs to be something of a priority for this group to stop this sort of rot, because if we don't, it will pollute the entire system from working well for one device, let alone cohesively among many.



On Mar 3, 2011, at 3:04 PM, James Cloos wrote:
> 
> The nearest PPD to me has:
> 
>    Image RGB Source:    None *sRGB AdobeRGB AppleRGB ColorMatch baRGB
>    Image RGB Intent:    Business *Picture Proof Match
>    Text RGB Source:     None *sRGB AdobeRGB AppleRGB ColorMatch baRGB
>    Text RGB Intent:     *Business Picture Proof Match
>    Graphics RGB Source: None *sRGB AdobeRGB AppleRGB ColorMatch baRGB
>    Graphics RGB Intent: *Business Picture Proof Match

1. Are these options going to appear in the GUI? Can they be ignored or turned off somehow? I really think we need a way to force their deprecation.

2. For RGB, is there really, at the present time, any source more applicable than sRGB for untagged objects? I say no (specifically, not yet defined). What does everybody else think?

a. If it's untagged but not sRGB:
	i. How could or why should the user possibly know this?
	ii. Why is it untagged? Was it never tagged to begin with, or did something else in the pipeline strip it? Why?
	iii. Why would I be limited to this list of RGB? For it to have *any* purpose it would have to be capable of listing every possible RGB space.

I don't know that I need to go on how completely inapplicable it is for an end user to define the source space for untagged RGB. If we're going to be putting kludges into PPDs because something upstream isn't working, we're going to have a really fakaked and kludgy color management system (and PPDs) once all is said and done.

3. Why and how could there possibly be different sources for text, images and vector graphics? This makes less sense than the very option of choosing color spaces, unless of course, it is anticipating the existence and acceptance of malevolent applications that ignorantly strip ICC profile metadata.

4. So what gets used? What the user chooses in the print dialog from the pop-ups that this portion of the PPD generates? Or what the user has chosen elsewhere in their applications, or in the Gnome Color Manager or Oyranos or whatever their ancestors are? How many different locations do we really need for users to set default color spaces for untagged objects?


> 
> 
> That pdd also supports a simulation profile for DeviceCMYK:
> 
>    Simulation Profile: None *SWOP Euroscale Commercial DIC TOYO

This is annoying and nonsensical also, but there's probably not a lot that can be done about it in a v1.0 or short term. This is a relic of a bygone era. And how it works varies from printer to printer. So preventing it from happening, and then rolling better conversions (even default ones) within a new framework which would achieve better consistency from device to device, is a long shot. By default, this means there is no such thing as /DeviceCMYK on this printer. An internal conversion will occur. It expects to receive SWOP, and usually such a system has *NO MEANS* of communicating this expectation upstream so the data can be properly submitted every time.



Chris Murphy