[Openicc] GoSoC 2011: CPD and target printing

[Graeme Gill]

Robert Krawitz wrote:
> I don't agree with this reasoning.  I think it's important to have all
> such options available from all programs with a print dialog; we
> should figure out how to present them most effectively.

My view is both to agree and disagree: I think that the ability to
setup a printer is something that should be put in well tested
and maintained code paths and be universally available, rather than
relegated to "optional" component that will probably fall into disrepair,
or make it hard to access or be inconsistent with the normal printing path.

On the other hand, I don't see anybody changing such detailed settings
arbitrarily on a print by print basis. The practical way of handling
printer setup is with a labelled configuration. The configuration
choice would be what can be set from the normal printing dialogue,
while creating or altering a configuration would be a separate
step "edit/create printer configuration". Where such configuration
information would be kept, and the method for accessing and changing
it is an interesting technical question. Ideally it should be
a remotely available operation, so that creating or examining
printing configurations can be done from any place that you
can print a document from, accessible from the usual printer
information GUI.

A printer configuration approach is another (somewhat more
manual) way of managing profiles. You simply have a profile
per configuration, since the configuration defines the printing
behaviour.

A practical finessing of this is to introduce one level of indirection:

The printer configuration includes things like paper type, calibration
target and profile, and then refers to a printer operation setup that
has things like screening, separation, per channel limits etc.
That way the really technical stuff can be shared, allowing users
to customize for similar but different paper types without having
to know how to setup the really deep printer operation stuff.

There would then be a natural evolution to a range of pre-defined
basic printer operation modes, and a wide selection of particular
paper setups, with the option always there of doing a custom printer
operation setup for difficult or special situations.

Graeme Gill.