[Openicc] GoSoC 2011: CPD and target printing

[edmund ronald]

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 6:42 AM, Michael Sweet <msweet at apple.com> wrote:

>
> On May 12, 2011, at 8:10 PM, Graeme Gill wrote:
>
> > Michael Sweet wrote:
> >> There are very few applications that actually have everything needed to
> print a target
> >> and generate a profile. Even Adobe Photoshop doesn't do it. That said, I
> am not saying
> >> there is only one application that does #1, but that the application in
> #1 is distinct
> >> from a normal user application that prints (using #2).
> >
> > They aren't necessarily connected though. A profiling application will
> either
> > 1) produce an image file (ie. PS, .tiff, PDF etc)
> > or 2) produce and print the test file.
> >
> > In the case for 1), the application actually used to print the test chart
> > will typically be a normal application, using a normal print dialog. It's
> > actually good color management practice to print the test chart through
> > exactly the same workflow as will be used for the color managed work,
> > to ensure that all the processing the same.
>
> Actually not unless you plan on having that application apply the device
> profile you create. I hope that kind of workflow disappears in favor of a
> common profile registry that is used when printing from any application.
> Application-based color management has a long history of not working
> reliably...
>
>
There is clearly something to be said for system-wide transparent color
management *that just works*. We all wish we had it, and I guess if the
price is a sealed-tight system that needs special tools to make and install
profiles that would be an acceptable price to pay. I think the very fact
that many of us use Macs as personal machines proves that many things are
done well and work well - be it in display or in printing.

On the other hand, as Graeme points out, cutting edge professional apps may
be using cutting-edge gamut mapping, be it for the display or for the
printing, and on-the fly computation may make more sense sometimes than any
attempt to precompute a profile and register it on a system which is not
designed for ephemeral throw-away profiles;  furthermore quite a few of us
on this list are somehow involved in designing CM systems and pseudo-RIPS,
and we are exactly the population who may be interested in running
application color management.

I would say that the criticism of third party apps not working correctly is
apposite - I have seen Argyll crash quite frequently in the distant past :)
- but that is the price of software in development, and not a reason to stop
people from writing software.

Edmund
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