[Openicc] Color Management for Ubuntu

[Scott Geffert]

I happen to agree with Ann in her comment regarding the overall goal: "My intention is that color management should be clear and simple, as complicated as necessary and not one stitch more. In order to get there".
One thing that throws a monkey wrench into the adoption of color management is that when it is applied properly it levels the paying field.  Over the years developers, manufacturers, and color consultants have added proprietary layers that have slowly perverted the relatively simple model. These perversions (proprietary layers) have actually worked to undermine the benefit of the technology and have arguably hurt the entire industry.
A lack of standards is a classic sign of an immature technology. If you look at the photography industry there was a time (late 1800's) when there were dozens of competing methods for describing lens aperture. Over time it became clear that the lack of standardization was holding back universal adoption. By 1903-5 the universal f-stop scale helped jump start the worldwide adoption of photography and is still a core component of the photographic experience. If we all begin to look at ICC and a common implementation across all computing platforms and devices, the user experience would be greatly improved and sales would increase.
Another advantage of adopting a universal color UI is on the education front. Today education for digital imaging (and graphic arts in general)     is almost 100% application based. This is very disruptive, because instead of learning critical aspects of the underpinnings of modern production, students are simply forced to drink the cool aid served up by a handful of silicon valley corporations. Imagine if students around the world were educated in the proper use of universal protocols. As the education level increases, the entire industry will grow and users will be more productive.
As I have stated before, it would be incredibly helpful for the ICC to join with the eci to establish a clear roadmap and end user UI "color bill of rights". Essentially what is needed is a concrete set of ground rules that all manufacturers are required to follow in order to be marketed as ICC compatible. Why is this so difficult? I am sure that manufacturers would love to have clarity regarding color and color related UI. As long at this remains ambiguous we are in trouble. If Anne advocates some of the creative ideas discussed on this forum within Lexmark this does little to encourage other manufactures to follow suit and may even trigger other manufacturers to try to build a better mousetrap which is what we need to avoid. Only the independent bodies can champion best practices of the entire industry.
I look at this list and I worry because I see no overall vision, just a handful of people bantering about minutia. Where is the big picture? What party can we turn to to begin to take these great ideas into a broader industry wide event like the adoption of f stops in photography?

Scott

On May 3, 2011, at 8:56 PM, openicc-request at lists.freedesktop.org wrote:

> Re: [Openicc] Color Management for Ubuntu