[Openicc] Printing Plans GhostScript / sRGB / ICC

[Graeme Gill]

Kai-Uwe Behrmann wrote:
> Given the spool format being announced as PDF, I tend to stress that.

I don't think that addresses the right side of the problem. The original
application PDL is where the color problems are, not the internal
printer/RIP spool format, where it has complete control over the
color representation.

> Raster input like Tiff or Jpeg is not yet clear how to handle. But it
> could at some point simply be converted into PDF.

Some print drivers/applications convert it to another format (ie.
encapsulate in PS or PDF), others merely wrap it in a job ticket
and submit it, since you don't even need a RIP to resample
a raster and color convert it for a typical raster based printer,
resulting in considerable performance benefits.

Of course if the printer in question only efficiently talks its
own flavour of a PDL, things are not so straightforward.
A print server has the option of passing the PDL through
(and expecting therefore that the print driver creates the right
sort of DPL for that printer), or uses a RIP to do a PDL to PDL
type conversion. The former gives more limited control over the
color handling, the latter may be slow and has some accuracy risks.

Graeme Gill